UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 

"IIIIIIIIIIIM 

00022094500 


) 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://www.archive.org/details/throughlookinggl1902ca 


uJ* 


fe 


B 


THROUGH  THE 
LOOKING-GLASS 


AND  WHAT  ALICE 
EOUND   THERE 


Sum.  : 


LEWIS  CARROLL 


PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


m 


Copyright,   1902, 


HOMEWOOD   PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


Child  of  the  pure  unclouded  brow 
And  dreaming  eyes  of  wonder! 

Though  time  be  fleet,  and  I  and  thou 
Are  half  a  mile  asunder, 

Thy  loving  smile  will  surely  hail 

The  love-gift  of  a  fairy-tale. 

I  have  not  seen  thy  sunny  face, 
Nor  heard  thy  silver  laughter : 

No  thought  of  me  shall  find  a  place 
In  thy  young  life's  hereafter — 

Enough  that  now  thou  wilt  not  fail 

To  listen  to  my  fairy-tale. 

A  tale  begun  in  other  days, 

When  summer  suns  were  glowing — 
A  simple  chime,  that  served  to  time 

The  rhythm  of  our  rowing — 
Whose  echoes  live  in  memory  yet, 
Though  envious  years  would  say  "forget.1 

Come,  hearken  then,  ere  voice  of  dread, 

With  bitter  tidings  laden, 
Shall  summon  to  unwelcome  bed 

A  melancholy  maiden! 
We  are  but  older  children,  dear, 
Who  fret  to  find  our  bedtime  near. 


Without,  the  frost,  the  blinding  snow, 
The  storm-wind's  moody  madness — 

Within,  the  firelight's  ruddy  glow, 
And  childhood's  nest  of  gladness. 

The  magic  words  shall  hold  thee  fast: 

Thou  shalt  not  heed  the  raving  blast. 

And,  though  the  shadow  of  a  sigh 
May  tremble  through  the  story, 

For  "happy  summer  days"  gone  by, 
And  vanish 'd  summer  glory — 

It  shall  not  touch,  with  breath  of  bale, 
The  pleasance  of  our  fairy-tale. 


CONTENTS. 

CHAPTEB.  PAGE. 

I.  Looking-Glass  House n 

II.  The  Garden  of  Live  Flowers 28 

III.  Looking-Glass  Insects 42 

IV.  Tweedledum  and  Tweedledee 55 

V.  Wool  and  Water 72 

VI.  Humpty  Dumpty 88 

VII.  The  Lion  and  the  Unicorn 104 

VIII.  "It's  My  Own  Invention" 118 

IX.  Queen  Alice 138 

X.  Shaking 160 

XI.  Waking 161 

XII.  Which  Dreamed  It? 163 


CHRISTMAS-GREETINGS. 


[from  a  fairy  to  a  child.] 

Lady,  dear,  if  Fairies  may 
For  a  moment  lay  aside 

Cunning  tricks  and  elfish  play, 
'Tis  at  happy  Christmas-tide. 

We  have  heard  the  children  say — 

Gentle  children,  whom  we  love- 
Long  ago,  on  Christmas  Day, 
Came  a  message  from  above. 

Still,  as  Christmas-tide  comes  round. 

They  remember  it  again — 
Echo  still  the  joyful  sound, 
"Peace  on  earth,  good- will  to  men!" 

Yet  the  hearts  must  childlike  be 
Where  such  heavenly  guests  abide  5 

Unto  children  in  their  glee, 
All  the  year  is  Christmas-tide ! 

Thus,  forgetting  tricks  and  play 
For  a  moment,  lady  dear, 

We  would  wish  you,  if  we  may, 
Merry  Christmas,  glad  New  Year. 
Christmas,  1867. 


CHAPTER  I. 


LOOKING-GLASS    HOUSE. 


One  thing  was  certain,  that  the  white  kitten 
had  had  nothing  to  do  with  it — it  was  the  black 
kitten's  fault  entirely.  For  the  white  kitten 
had  been  having  its  face  washed  by  the  old  cat 
for  the  last  quarter  of  an  hour  (and  bearing  it 
pretty  well,  considering) :  so  you  see  that  it 
couldn't  have  had  any  hand  in  the  mischief. 

The  way  Dinah  washed  her  children's  faces 
was  this:  first  she  held  the  poor  thing  down 
by  its  ear  with  one  paw,  and  then  with  the 
other  paw  she  rubbed  its  face  all  over,  the 
wrong  way,  beginning  at  the  nose:  and  just 
now,  as  I  said,  she  was  hard  at  work  on  the, 
white  kitten,  which  was  lying  quite  still  and 
trying  to  purr — no  doubt  feeling  that  it  was  all 
meant  for  its  good. 

But  the  black  kitten  had  been  finished  with 
earlier  in  the  afternoon,  and  so,  while  Alice 
was  sitting  curled  up  in  a  corner  of  the  great 
arm-chair,  half  talking  to  herself  and  half 
asleep,  the  kitten  had  been  having  a  grand 
game  of  romps  with  the  ball  of  worsted  Alice 
had  been  trying  to  wind  up,  and  had  been  roll- 
ing it  up  and  down  till  it  had  all  come  undone 
again ;  and  there  it  was,  spread  over  the  hearth 
rug,  all  knots  and  tangles,  with  the  kitten  run- 
ning after  its  own  tail  in  the  middle. 
11 


12  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"Oh,  you  wicked,  wicked  little  thing!"  cried 
Alice,  catching  up  the  kitten,  and  giving  it  a 
little  kiss  to  make  it  understand  that  it  was  in 
disgrace.  "Really,  Dinah  ought  to  have 
taught  you  better  manners!  You  ought, 
Dinah,  you  know  you  ought!"  she  added,  look- 
ing reproachfully  at  the  old  cat,  and  speaking 
in  as  cross  a  voice  as  she  could  manage — and 
then  she  scrambled  back  into  the  arm-chair, 
taking  the  kitten  and  the  worsted  with  her, 
and  began  winding  up  the  ball  again.  But 
she  didn't  get  on  very  fast,  as  she  was  talking 
all  the  time,  sometimes  to  the  kitten,  and 
sometimes  to  herself.  Kitty  sat  very  demurely 
on  her  knee,  pretending  to  watch  the  progress 
of  the  winding,  and  now  and  then  putting  out 
one  paw  and  gently  touching  the  ball,  as  if  it 
would  be  glad  to  help  if  it  might. 

"Do  you  know  what  to-morrow  is,  Kitty?" 
Alice  began.  "You'd  have  guessed  if  you'd 
been  up  in  the  window  with  me — only  Dinah 
was  making  you  tidy,  so  you  couldn't.  I  was 
watching  the  boys  getting  in  sticks  for  the 
bonfire — and  it  wants  plenty  of  sticks,  Kitty! 
Only  it  got  so  cold,  and  it  snowed  so,  they  had 
to  leave  off.  Never  mind,  Kitty,  we'll  go  and 
see  the  bonfire  to-morrow."  Here  Alice 
wound  two  or  three  turns  of  the  worsted  round 
the  kitten's  neck,  just  to  see  how  it  would  look: 
this  led  to  a  scramble,  in  which  the  ball  rolled 
down  upon  the  floor,  and  yards  and  yards  of  it 
got  unwound  again. 

"Do  you  know,  T  was  so  angry,  Kitty,"  Alice 
went   on,    as  soon  as  they  were  comfortably 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


13 


settled  again,  "when  I  saw  all  the  mischief 
you  had  been  doing,  I  was  very  nearly  opening 
the  window,  and  putting  you  out  into  the  snow ! 
And  you'd  have  deserved  it,  you  little  mis- 
chievous darling!  What  have  you  got  to  say 
for  yourself?  Now  don't  interrupt  me!"  she 
went  on,  holding  up  one  finger.       "I'm  going 


to  tell  you  all  your  faults. 


Number  one :  you 


14  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

squeaked  twice  while  Dinah  was  washing  your 
face  this  morning.  Now  you  can't  deny  it, 
Kitty:  I  heard  you!  What's  that  you  say?" 
(pretending  that  the  kitten  was  speaking). 
"Her  paw  went  into  your  eye?  Well,  that's 
your  fault,  for  keeping  your  eyes  open — if 
you'd  shut  them  tight  up,  it  wouldn't  have 
happened.  Now  don't  make  any  more  ex- 
cuses, but  listen!  Number  two:  you  pulled 
Snowdrop  away  by  the  tail  just  as  I  had  put 
down  the  saucer  of  milk  before  her!  What, 
you  were  thirsty,  were  you?  How  do  you 
know  she  wasn't  thirsty  too?  Now  for  num- 
ber three:  you  unwound  every  bit  of  the 
worsted  while  I  wasn't  looking! 

"That's  three  faults,  Kitty,  and  you've  not 
been  punished  for  any  of  them  yet.  You 
know  I'm  saving  up  all  your  punishments  for 
Wednesday  week — Suppose  they  had  saved  up 
all  my  punishments?"  she  went  on,  talking 
more  to  herself  than  the  kitten.  "What  would 
they  do  at  the  end  of  a  year?  I  should  be  sent 
to  prison,  I  suppose,  when  the  day  came.  Or 
— let  me  see — suppose  each  punishment  was  to 
be  going  without  a  dinner:  then,  when  the 
miserable  day  came,  I  should  have  to  go  with- 
out fifty  dinners  at  once!  Well,  I  shouldn't 
mind  that  much!  I'd  far  rather  go  without 
them  than  eat  them! 

"Do  you  hear  the  snow  against  the  window- 
panes,  Kitty?  How  nice  and  soft  it  sounds! 
Just  as  if  some  one  was  kissing  the  window  all 
over  outside.  I  wonder  if  the  snow  loves  the 
trees  and  fields,  that  it  kisses  them   so  gently? 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  15 

And  then  it  covers  them  up  snug,  you  know, 
with  a  white  quilt ;  and  perhaps  it  says,  'Go  to 
sleep,  darlings,  till  the  summer  comes  again. ' 
And  when  they  wake  up  in  the  summer,  Kitty, 
they  dress  themselves  all  in  green,  and  dance 
about — whenever  the  wind  blows — oh,  that's 
very  pretty!"  cried  Alice,  dropping  the  ball  of 
worsted  to  clap  her  hands.  "And  I  do  so  wish 
it  was  true!  I'm  sure  the  woods  look  sleepy 
in  the  autumn,  when  the  leaves  are  getting 
brown. 

"Kitty,  can  you  play  chess?  Now,  don't 
smile,  my  dear,  I'm  asking  it  seriously. 
Because,  when  we  were  playing  just  now,  you 
watched  just  as  if  you  understood  it :  and  when 
I  said  'Check!'  you  purred!  Well,  it  was  a 
nice  check,  Kitty,  and  really  I  might  have 
won,  if  it  hadn't  been  for  that  nasty  Knight, 
that  came  wriggling  down  among  my  pieces. 

Kitty,  dear,  let's  pretend "      And  here  I 

wish  I  could  tell  you  half  the  things  Alice  used 
to  say,  beginning  with  her  favorite  phrase 
"Let's  pretend."  She  had  had  quite  along 
argument  with  her  sister  only  the  day  before — 
all  because  Alice  had  begun  with  "Let's  pre- 
tend we're  kings  and  queens;"  and  her  sister, 
who  liked  being  very  exact,  had  argued  that 
they  couldn't,  because  there  were  only  two  of 
them,  and  Alice  had  been  reduced  at  last  to 
say  "Well,  you  can  be  one  of  them,  then,  and 
I'll  be  all  the  rest."  And  once  she  had  really 
frightened  her  old  nurse  by  shouting  suddenly 
in  her  ear,  "Nurse!  Do  let's  pretend  that  I'm 
a  hungry  hyena,  and  you're  a  bone!" 


16  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

But  this  is  taking  us  away,  from  Alice's 
speech  to  the  kitten.  "Let's  pretend  that 
you're  the  Red  Queen,  Kitty!  Do  you  know, 
I  think  if  you  sat  up  and  folded  your  arms, 
you'd  look  exactly  like  her.  Now  do  try, 
there's  a  dear!"  And  Alice  got  the  Red  Queen 
off  the  table,  and  set  it  up  before  the  kitten  as 
a  model  for  it  to  imitate:  however,  the  thing 
didn't  succeed,  principally,  Alice  said,  because 
the  kitten  wouldn't  fold  its  arms  properly. 
So,  to  punish  it,  she  held  it  up  to  the  Looking- 
glass,  that  it  might  see  how  sulky  it  was, 
" — and  if  you're  not  good  directly,  "she  added, 
"I'll  put  you  through  into  Looking-glass 
House.     How  would  you  like  that? 

"Now,  if  you'll  only  attend,  Kitty,  and  not 
talk  so  much,  I'll  tell  you  all  my  ideas  about 
Looking-glass  House.  First,  there's  the  room 
you  can  see  through  the  glass — that's  just  the 
same  as  our  drawing-room,  only  the  things  go 
the  other  way.  I  can  see  all  of  it  when  I  get 
upon  a  chair — all  but  the  bit  just  behind  the 
fire-place.  Oh !  I  do  so  wish  I  could  see  that 
bit!  I  want  so  much  to  know  whether  they've 
a  fire  in  the  winter:  you  never  can  tell,  you 
know,  unless  our  fire  smokes,  and  then  smoke 
comes  up  in  that  room  too — but  that  may  be 
only  pretence,  just  to  make  it  look  as  if  they 
had  a  fire.  Well  then,  the  books  are  something 
like  our  books,  only  the  words  go  the  wrong 
way:  I  know  that,  because  I've  held  up  one  of 
our  books  to  the  glass,  and  then  they  hold  up 
one  in  the  other  room. 

"How    would  you  like  to  live  in   Looking- 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  17 


glass  House,  Kitty?  I  wonder  if  they'd  give 
you  milk  in  there?  Perhaps  Looking-glass 
milk  isn't  good  to  drink — but  oh,  Kitty!  now 
we  come  to  the  passage.  You  can  just  see  a 
little  peep  of  the  passage  in  Looking-glass 
House,  if  you  leave  the  door  of  our  drawing- 
room  wide  open :  and  it's  very  like  our  passage 
as  far  as  you  can  see,  only  you  know  it  may  be 
quite  different  on  beyond.      Oh,    Kitty,  how 


18  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


nice  it  would  be  if  we  could  only  get  through 
into  Looking-glass  House!  I'm  sure  it's  got, 
oh!  such  beautiful  things  in  it!  Let's  pretend 
there's  a  way  of  getting  through  into  it,  some- 
how, Kitty.  Let's  pretend  the  glass  has  got 
all  soft  like  gauze,  so  that  we  can  get  through. 
Why,  it's  turning  into  a  sort  of  mist  now,  I 
declare!  It'll  be  easy  enough  to  get  through 
"     She  was  up  on  the  chimney-piece  while 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  19 

she  said  this,  though  she  hardly  knew  how  she 
had  got  there.  And  certainly  the  glass  was 
beginning  to  melt  away,  just  like  a  bright  sil- 
very mist. 

In  another  moment  Alice  was  through  the 
glass,  and  had  jumped  lightly  down  into  the 
Looking-glass  room.  The  very  first  thing  she 
did  was  to  look  whether  there  was  a  fire  in  the 
fireplace,  and  she  was  quite  pleased  to  find  that 
there  was  a  real  one,  blazing  away  as  brightly 
as  the  one  she  had  left  behind.  "So  I  shall  be 
as  warm  here  as  I  was  in  the  old  room," 
thought  Alice:  "warmer,  in  fact,  because 
there'll  be  no  one  here  to  scold  me  away  from 
the  fire.  Oh,  what  fun  it'll  be,  when  they  see 
me  through  the  glass  in  here,  and  can't  get  at 
me!" 

Then  she  began  looking  about,  and  noticed 
that  what  could  be  seen  from  the  old  room  was 
quite  common  and  uninteresting,  but  that  all 
the  rest  was  as  different  as  possible.  For 
instance,  the  pictures  on  the  wall  next  the  fire 
seemed  to  be  all  alive,  and  the  very  clock  on 
the  chimney-piece  (you  know  you  can  only  see 
the  back  of  it  in  the  Looking-glass)  had  got 
the  face  of  a  little  _ld  man,  and  grinned  at 
her. 

"They  don't  keep  this  room  so  tidy  as  the 
other,"  Alice  thought  to  herself,  as  she 
noticed  several  of  the  chessmen  down  in  the 
hearth  among  the  cinders;  but  in  another 
moment,  with  a  little  "Oh!"  of  surprise,  she 
was  down  on   her  hands   and  knees  watching 


20 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


them.     The  chessmen  were  walking  about,  two 
and  two ! 

"Here  are  the  Red  King  and  the  Red 
Queen,"  Alice  said  (in  a  whisper,  for  fear  of 
frightening  them),  "and  there  are  the  White 
King  and  the  White  Queen  sitting  on  the  edge 
of  the  shovel — and  here  are  two  Castles  walk- 
ing arm  in  arm — I  don't  think  they  can  hear 
me,"  she  went  on,  as  she  put  her  head  closer 
down,  "and  I'm  nearly  sure  they  can't  see  me. 
I   feel  somehow  as  if  I  was  grettino-  invisible 


Here  something  began  squeaking  on  the 
table  behind  Alice,and  made  her  turn  her  head 
just  in  time  to  see  one  of  the  White  Pawns  roll 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  21 

over  and  begin  kicking ;  she  watched  it  with 
great  curiosity  to  see  what  would  happen  next. 

4 ' It  is  the  voice  of  my  child ! "the  White  Queen 
cried  out,  as  she  rushed  past  the  King,  so  vio- 
lently that  she  knocked  him  over  among  the 
cinders.  "  My  precious  Lily !  My  imperial  kit- 
ten!" and  she  began  scrambling  wildly  up  the 
side  of  the  fender. 

"Imperial  fiddlestick!"  said  the  King,  rub- 
bing his  nose  which  had  been  hurt  by  the  fall. 
He  had  a  right  to  be  a  little  annoyed  with  the 
Queen,  for  he  was  covered  with  ashes  from 
head  to  foot. 

Alice  was  very  anxious  to  be  of  use,  and,  as 
the  poor  little  Lily  was  nearly  screaming  her- 
self into  a  fit,  she  hastily  picked  up  the  Queen 
and  set  her  on  the  table  by  the  side  of  her  noisy 
little  daughter. 

The  Queen  gasped,  and  sat  down ;  the  rapid 
journey  through  the  air  had  quite  taken  away 
her  breath,  and  for  a  minute  or  two  she  could 
do  nothing  but  hug  the  little  Lily  in  silence. 
As  soon  as  she  had  recovered  her  breath  a  lit- 
tle, she  called  out  to  the  White  King,  who  was 
sitting  sulkily  among  the  ashes,  "Mind  the 
volcano!" 

"What  volcano?"  said  the  King,  looking  up 
anxiously  into  the  fire,  as  if  he  thought  that 
was  the  most  likely  place  to  find  one. 

"Blew — me — up,"  panted  the  Queen,  who 
was  still  a  little  out  of  breath.  "Mind  you 
come  up — the  regular  way — don't  get  blown 
up!" 

Alice  watched  the  White  King  as  he  slowly 


22 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


struggled  up  from  bar  to  bar,  till  at  last  she 
said,  "Why,  you'll  be  hours  and  hours  getting 
to  the  table,  at  that  rate.  I'd  far  better  help 
you,  hadn't  I?"  But  the  King  took  no  notice 
of  the  question ;  it  was  quite  clear  that  he  could 
neither  hear  her  nor  see  her. 


So  Alice  picked  him  up  very  gently,  and 
lifted  him  across  more  slowly  than  she  had 
lifted  the  Queen,  that  she  mightn't  take  his 
breath  away;  but,  before  she  put  him  on  the 
table,  she  thought  she  might  as  well  dust  him 
a  little,  he  was  so  covered  with  ashes. 

She  said  afterwards  that  she  had  never  seen 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  23 

in  all  her  life  such  a  face  as  the  King  made, 
when  he  found  himself  held  in  the  air  by  an 
invisible  hand,  and  being  dusted ;  he  was  far 
too  much  astonished  to  cry  out,  but  his  eyes 
and  his  mouth  went  on  getting  larger  and 
larger,  and  rounder  and  rounder,  till  her  hand 
shook  so  with  laughing  that  she  nearly  let  him 
drop  upon  the  floor. 

"Oh!  please  don't  make  such  faces,  my 
dear!"  she  cried  out,  quite  forgetting  that  the 
King  couldn't  hear  her.  "You  make  me  laugh 
so  that  I  can  hardly  hold  you!  And  don't 
keep  your  mouth  so  wide  open !  All  the  ashes 
will  get  into  it — there,  now  I  think  you're  tidy 
enough!"  she  added,  as  she  smoothed  his  hair, 
and  set  him  upon  the  table  near  the  Queen. 

The  King  immediately  fell  flat  on  his  back, 
and  lay  perfectly  still ;  and  Alice  was  a  little 
alarmed  at  what  she  had  done,  and  went  round 
the  room  to  see  if  she  could  find  any  water  to 
throw  over  him.  However,  she  could  find 
nothing  but  a  bottle  of  ink,  and  when  she  got 
back  with  it  she  found  he  had  recovered,  and 
he  and  the  Queen  were  talking  together  in  a 
frightened  whisper — so  low,  that  Alice  could 
hardly  hear  what  they  said. 

The  King  was  saying,  "I  assure  you,  my 
dear,  I  turned  cold  to  the  very  ends  of  my 
whiskers!" 

To  which  the  Queen  replied,  "You  haven't 
got  any  whiskers." 

"The  horror  of  that  moment,"  the  King 
went  on,  "I  shall  never,  never  forget." 


24  THROUGH  THE  LOOKIXG-GLASS. 

"You  will,  though,"  the  Queen  said,  "if  "ou 
don't  make  a  memorandum  of  it. " 

Alice  looked  on  with  great  interest  as  the 
King  took  an  enormous  memorandum-book  out 
of  his  pocket,  and  began  writing.  A  sudden 
thought  struck  her,  and  she  took  hold  of  the 
end  of  the  pencil,  which  came  some  way  over 
his  shoulder,  and  began  writing  for  him. 

The  poor  King  looked  puzzled  and  unhappy, 
and  struggled  with  the  pencil  for  some  time 
without  saying  anything;  but  Alice  was  too 
strong  for  him,  and  at  last  he  panted  out,  "My 
dear!  I  really  must  get  a  thinner  pencil.  I 
can't  manage  this  one  a  bit;  it  writes  all  man- 
ner of  things  that  I  don't  intend " 

"What  manner  of  things?"  said  the  Queen, 
looking  over  the  book  (in  which  Alice  had  put 
"The  White  Knight  is  sliding  down  the  poker. 
He  balances  very  badly").  "That's  not  a 
memorandum  of  your  feelings." 

There  was  a  book  lying  near  Alice  on  the 
table,  and  while  she  sat  watching  the  White 
King  (for  she  was  still  a  little  anxious  about 
him,  and  had  the  ink  all  ready  to  throw  over 
him,  in  case  he  fainted  again),  she  turned  over 
the  leaves,  to  find  some  part  that  she  could 
read,  " — for  it's  all  in  some  language  I  don't 
know,"  she  said  to  herself. 

It  was  like  this; 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  25 

:s5»w  aAS  «•*  aX&rcw\>  few©  yt\r\>  foiQ. 

She  puzzled  over  this  for  some  time,  but  at 
last  a  bright  thought  struck  her.  "Why,  it's 
a  Looking-glass  book,  of  course!  And,  if  I 
hold  it  up  to  a  glass,  the  words  will  all  go  the 
right  way  again." 

This  was  the  poem  that  Alice  read: 

JABBERWOCKY. 

'Twas  brillig,  and  the  slithy  toves 
Did  gyre  and  gimble  in  the  wabe; 

All  mimsy  were  the  borogoves, 
And  the  mome  raths  outgrabe. 

"Beware  the  Jabberwock,  my  son! 

The  jaws  that  bite,  the  claws  that  catch! 
Beware  the  Jubjub  bird,  and  shun 

The  frumious  Bandersnatch!" 

He  took  his  vorpal  sword  in  hand: 
"    Long  time  the  manxome  foe  he  sought — 
So  rested  he  by  the  Tumtum  tree, 
And  stood  awhile  in  thought. 


26  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

And,  as  in  uffish  thought  he  stood, 
The  Jabberwock,  with  eyes  of  flame, 

Came  whiffing  through  the  tulgey  wood, 
And  burbled  as  it  came! 

One,  two!  One,  two!  And  through  and  through 
The  vorpal  blade  went  snicker-snack ! 

He  left  it  dead,  and  with  its  head 
He  went  galumphing  back. 

"And  hast  thou  slain  the  Jabberwock? 

Come  to  my  arms,  my  beamish  boy! 
O  frabjous  day!  Callooh!  Callay!" 

He  chortled  in  his  joy. 

'Twas  brillig,  and  the  slithy  toves 
Did  gyre  and  gimble  in  the  wabe : 

All  mimsy  were  the  borogoves, 
And  the  mome  raths  outgrabe. 

"It  seems  very  pretty,"  she  said  when  she 
had  finished  it,  "but  it's  rather  hard  to  under- 
stand!" (You  see  she  didn't  like  to  confess, 
even  to  herself,  that  she  couldn't  make  it  out 
at  all.)  "Somehow  it  seems  to  fill  my  head 
with  ideas — only  I  don't  exactly  know  what 
they  are!  However,  somebody  killed  some- 
thing; that's  clear,  at  any  rate — " 

"But  oh!"  thought  Alice,  suddenly  jumping 
up,  "if  I  don't  make  haste,  I  shall  have  to  go 
back  through  the  Looking-glass,  before  I've 
seen  what  the  rest  of  the  house  is  like!  Let's 
have  a  look  at  the  garden  first!"  She  was  out 
o'   the  room  in  a  moment,  and  ran  downstairs 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  27 

r,  at  least,  it  wasn't  exactly  running,  but  a 
new  invention  for  getting  downstairs  quickly 
and  easily,  as  Alice  said  to  herself.  She  just 
kept  the  tips  of  her  fingers  on  the  hand-rail, 
and  floated  gently  down  without  even  touching 
the  stairs  with  her  feet ;  then  she  floated  on 
through  the  hall,  and  would  have  gone  straight 
out  at  the  door  in  the  same  way,  if  she  hadn't 
caught  hold  of  the  door-post.  She  was  getting 
a  little  giddy  with  so  much  floating  in  the  air, 
and  was  rather  glad  to  find  herself  walking 
again  in  the  natural  way. 


28  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    GARDEN    OF    LIVE    FLOWERS. 

"I  should  see  the  garden  far  better, "  said 
Alice  to  herself,  "if  I  could  get  to  the  top  of 
that  hill;  and  here's  a  path  that  leads  straight 

to  it — at    least,    no,    it   doesn't   do   that " 

(after  going  a  few  yards  along  the  path,  and 
turning  several  sharp  corners),  "but  I  suppose 
it  will  at  last.  But  how  curiously  it  twists! 
It's  more  like  a  corkscrew  than  a  path!  Well, 
this  turn  goes  to  the  hill,  I  suppose — no,  it 
doesn't!  This  goes  straight  back  to  the  house! 
Well,  then,  I'll  try  it  the  other  way." 

And  so  she  did;  wandering  up  and  down, 
and  trying  turn  after  turn,  but  always  coming 
back  to  the  house,  do  what  she  would.  In- 
deed, once,  when  she  turned  a  corner  rather 
more  quickly  than  usual,  she  ran  against  it 
before  she  could  stop  herself. 

"It's  no  use  talking  about  it,"  Alice  said, 
looking  up  at  the  house  and  pretending  it  was 
arguing  with  her.  "I'm  not  going  in  again 
yet.  I  know  I  should  have  to  get  through 
the  Looking-glass  again — back  into  the  old 
room — and  there'd  be  an  end  of  all  my  adven- 
tures!" 

So,  resolutely  turning  her  back  upon  the 
house,  she  set  out  once  more  down  the  path, 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  29 

determined  to  keep  straight  on  till  she  got  to 
the  hill.  For  a  few  minutes  all  went  on  well, 
and  she  was  just  saying  "I  really  shall  do  it 

this  time "  when  the  path  gave  a  sudden 

twist  and  shook  itself  (as  she  described  it  after- 
wards), and  the  next  moment  she  found  herself 
actually  walking  in  at  the  door. 

"Oh,  it's  too  bad!"she  cried.  "I  never  saw 
such  a  house  for  getting  in  the  way!  Nev- 
er!" 

However,  there  was  the  hill  full  in  sight,  so 
there  was  nothing  to  be  done  but  start  again; 
This  time  she  came  upon  a  large  flower-bed, 
with  a  border  of  daisies,  and  a  willow-tree 
growing  in  the  middle. 

"O  Tiger-lily!"  said  Alice,  addressing  her- 
self to  one  that  was  waving  gracefully  about 
in  the  wind,  "I  wish  you  could  talk!" 

"We  can  talk,"  said  the  Tiger-lily,  "when 
there's  anybody  worth  talking  to." 

Alice  was  so  astonished  that  she  couldn't 
speak  for  a  minute:  it  quite  seemed  to  take 
her  breath  away.  At  length,  as  the  Tiger- 
lily  only  went  on  waving  about,  she  spoke 
again,  in  a  timid  voice — almost  in  a  whisper. 
"And  can  all  the  flowers  talk?" 

"As  well  as  you  can,"  said  the  Tiger-lily. 
"And  a  great  deal  louder. " 

"It  isn't  manners  for  us  to  begin,  you  know, " 
said  the  Rose,  "and  I  really  was  wondering 
when  you'd  speak!  Said  I  to  myself,  'Her  face 
has  got  some  sense  in  it,  though  it's  not  a 
clever  one!'  Still,  you're  the  right  color,  and 
that  goes  a  long  way. " 
3 


30  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


"I  don't  care  about  the  color, "  the  Tiger-lily 
remarked.  "If  only  her  petals  curled  up  a 
little  more,  she'd  be  all  right." 

Alice  didn't  like  being  criticised,  so  she 
began  asking  questions.  "Aren't  you  some- 
times frightened  at  being  planted  out  here, 
with  nobody  to  take  care  of  you?" 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  31 

"There's  the  tree  in  the  middle,"  said  the 
Rose.     "What  else  is  it  good  for?" 

"But  what  could  it  do,  if  any  danger  came?" 
Alice  asked. 

"It  could  bark,"  said  the  Rose. 

"It  says  'Bough-wough!'  "  cried  a  Daisy. 
"That's  why  its  branches  are  called  boughs!" 

"Didn't  you  know  that?"  cried  another 
Daisy.  And  here  they  all  began  shouting 
together,  till  the  air  seemed  quite  full  of  little 
shrill  voices.  "Silence,  every  one  of  you!" 
cried  the  Tiger- lily,  waving  itself  passionately 
from  side  to  side,  and  trembling  with  excite- 
ment. "They  know  I  can't  get  at  them!"  it 
panted,  bending  its  quivering  head  towards 
Alice,  "or  they  wouldn't  dare  to  do  it!" 

' '  Never  mind ! ' '  Alice  said  in  a  soothing  tone, 
and,  stooping  down  to  the  daisies,  who  were 
just  beginning  again,  she  whispered,  "If  you 
don't  hold  your  tongues,  I'll  pick  you!" 

There  was  silence  in  a  moment,  and  several 
of  the  pink  daisies  turned  white. 

"That's  right!"  said  the  Tiger-lily.  "The 
daisies  are  worst  of  all.  When  one  speaks, 
they  all  begin  together,  and  it's  enough  to 
make  one  wither  to  hear  the  way  they  go 
on!" 

"How is  it  you  can  all  talk  so  nicely?"  Alice 
said,  hoping  to  get  it  into  a  better  temper  b3r 
a  compliment.  "I've  been  in  many  gardens 
before,  but  none  of  the  flowers  could  talk. " 

"Put  your  hand  down,  and  feel  the  ground," 
said  the  Tiger-lily.  "Then  you'll  know 
why." 


32  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

Alice  did  so.  "It's  very  hard,"  she  said; 
"but  I  don't  see  what  that  has  to  do  with 
it." 

"In  most  gardens,"  the  Tiger-lily  said,  "they 
make  the  beds  too  soft — so  that  the  flowers  are 
always  asleep. " 

This  sounded  a  very  good  reason,  and  Alice 
was  quite  pleased  to  know  it.  "I  never  thought 
of  that  before!"  she  said. 

"It's  my  opinion  that  you  never  think  at 
all,"  the  Rose  said,  in  a  rather  severe  tone. 

"I  never  saw  anybody  that  looked  stupider," 
a  Violet  said,  -  so  suddenly,  that  Alice  quite 
jumped;  for  it  hadn't  spoken  before. 

"Hold  your  tongue!"  cried  the  Tiger-lily. 
"As  if  you  ever  saw  anybody!  You  keep  your 
head  under  the  leaves,  and  snore  away  there, 
till  you  know  no  more  what's  going  on  in  the 
world,  than  if  you  were  a  bud!" 

"Are  there  any  more  people  in  the  garden 
besides  me?"  Alice  said,  not  choosing  to  notice 
the  Rose's  last  remark. 

"There's  one  other  flower  in  the  garden  that 
can  move  about  like  you,"  said  the  Rose      "I 

wonder  how  you  do  it "      ("You're  always 

wondering,"  said  the  Tiger-lily),  "but  she's 
more  bushy  than  you  are." 

"Is  she  like  me?"  Alice  asked  eagerly,  for 
the  thought  crossed  her  mind,  "There's  an- 
other little  girl  in  the  garden,  somewhere!" 

"Well,  she  has  the  same  awkward  shape  as 
you,"  the  Rose  said:  "but  she's  redder — and 
her  petals  are  shorter,  I  think." 

"They're  done  up  close,  like  a  dahlia,"  said 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  33 

the  Tiger-lily:  "not  tumbled  about,  like 
yours. ' ' 

"But  that's  not  your  fault,"  the  Rose  added 
kindly.  "You're  beginning  to  fade,  you  know 
— and  then  one  can't  help  one's  petals  getting 
a  little  untidy." 

Alice  didn't  like  this  idea  at  all:  so,  to 
change  the  subject,  she  asked  "Does  she  ever 
come  out  here?" 

"I  daresay  you'll  see  her  soon,"  said  the 
Rose.  "She's  one  of  the  kind  that  has  nine 
spikes,  you  know." 

"Where  does  she  wear  them?"  Alice  asked 
with  some  curiosity. 

"Why,  all  around  her  head,  of  course,"  the 
Rose  replied.  "I  was  wondering  you  hadn't 
got  some  too.  I  thought  it  was  the  regular 
rule. ' ' 

"She's  coming!"  cried  the  Larkspur.  "I 
hear  her  footstep,  thump,  thump,  along  the 
gravel- walk!" 

Alice  looked  round  eagerly  and  found  that  it 
was  the  Red  Queen.  "She's  grown  a  good 
deal!"  was  her  first  remark.  She  had  indeed: 
when  Alice  first  found  her  in  the  ashes,  she 
had  been  only  three  inches  high — and  here 
she  was,  half  a  head  taller  than  Alice  her- 
self! 

"It's  the  fresh  air  that  does  it,"  said  the 
Rose:  "wonderfully  fine  air  it  is,  out  here." 

"I  think  I'll  go  and  meet  her,"  said  Alice, 
for,  though  the  flowers  were  interesting 
enough,  she  felt  that  it  would  be  far  grander 
to  have  a  talk  with  a  real  Queen. 

S    Looking  Glass 


34  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"You  can't  possibly  do  that,"  said  the  Rose: 
"I  should  advise  you  to  walk  the  other  way." 

This  sounded  nonsense  to  Alice,  so  she  said 
nothing,  but  set  off  at  once  towards  the  Red 
Queen.  To  her  surprise  she  lost  sight  of  her 
in  a  moment,  and  found  herself  walking  in  at 
the  front-door  again. 

A  little  provoked,  she  drew  back,  and,  after 
looking  everywhere  for  the  Queen  (whom  she 
spied  out  at  last,  a  long  way  off),  she  thought 
she  would  try  the  plan,  this  time,  of  walking 
in  the  opposite  direction. 

It  succeeded  beautifully.  She  had  not  been 
walking  a  minute  before  she  found  herself  face 
to  face  with  the  Red  Queen,  and  full  in  sight 
of  the  hill  she  had  been  so  long  aiming  at. 

"Where  do  you  come  from?"  said  the  Red 
Queen.  "And  where  are  you  going?  Look  up, 
speak  nicely,  and  don't  twiddle  your  fingers 
all  the  time." 

Alice  attended  to  all  these  directions,  and 
explained,  as  well  as  she  could,  that  she  had 
lost  her  way. 

"I  don't  know  what  you  mean  by  your  way," 
said  the  Queen:  "all  the  ways  about  here 
belong  to  me — but  why  did  you  come  out  here 
at  all?"  she  added  in  a  kinder  tone.  "Curtsey 
while  you're  thinking  what  to  say.  It  saves 
time. " 

Alice  wondered  a  little  at  this,  but  she  was 
too  much  in  awe  of  the  Queen  to  disbelieve  it. 
"I'll  try  it  when  I  go  home,"  she  thought  to 
herself,  "the  next  time  I'm  a  little  late  for 
dinner." 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  35 


"It's  time  for  you  to  answer  now,"  the 
Queen  said,  looking  at  her  watch:  "open  your 
mouth  a  little  wider  when  you  speak,  and 
always  say  'your  Majesty.'  " 

"I  only  wanted  to  see  what  the  garden  was 
like,  your  Majesty " 

"That's  right,"  said  the  Queen,  patting  her 
on  the  head,  which  Alice  didn't  like  at  all: 
"though,   when  you  say  'garden' — I've  seen 


36  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

gardens,  compared  with  which  this  would  be 
a  wilderness." 

Alice  didn't  dare  to  argue  the  point,  but 
went  on:  " — and  I  thought  I'd  try  and  find  my 
way  to  the  top  of  that  hill " 

"When  you  say  'hill,'"  the  Queen  inter- 
rupted, "I  could  show  you  hills,  in  comparison 
with  which  you'd  call  that  a  valley." 

"No,  I  shouldn't,"  said  Alice,  surprised  into 
contradicting  her  at  last:  "a  hill  can't  be  a 
valley,  you  know.  That  would  be  non- 
sense  " 

The  Red  Queen  shook  her  head.  "You  may 
call  it  'nonsense'  if  you  like,"  she  said,  "but 
I've  heard  nonsense,  compared  with  which 
that  would  be  as  sensible  as  a  dictionary!" 

Alice  curtseyed  again,  as  she  was  afraid 
from  the  Queen's  tone  that  she  was  a  little 
offended:  and  they  walked  on  in  silence  till 
they  got  to  the  top  of  the  little  hill. 

For  some  minutes  Alice  stood  without  speak- 
ing, looking  out  in  all  directions  over  the 
country — and  a  most  curious  country  it  was. 
There  were  a  number  of  tiny  little  brooks  run- 
ning straight  across  it  from  side  to  side,  and 
the  ground  between  was  divided  up  into 
squares  by  a  number  of  little  green  hedges, 
that  reached  from  brook  to  brook. 

"I  declare  it's  marked  out  just  like  a  large 
chess-board!"  Alice  said  at  last.  "There 
ought  to  be  some  men  moving  about  some- 
where— and  so  there  are!"  she  added  in  a  tone 
of  delight,  and  her  heart  began  to  beat  quick 
with  excitement  as  she  went  on.    "It's  a  great 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  37 

huge  game  of  chess  that's  being  played — all 
over  the  world — if  this  is  the  world  at  all,  you 
know.  Oh,  what  fun  it  is!  How  I  wish  I  was 
one  of  them!  I  wouldn't  mind  being  a  Pawn, 
if  only  I  might  join — though  of  course  I  should 
like  to  be  a  Queen,  best." 

She  glanced  rather  shyly  at  the  real  Queen 
as  she  said  this,  but  her  companion  only 
smiled  pleasantly,  and  said  "That's  easily 
managed.  You  can  be  the  White  Queen's 
Pawn,  if  you  like,  as  Lily's  too  young  to  play; 
and  you're  in  the  Second  Square  to  begin  with: 
when  you  get  to  the  Eighth  Square  you'll  be  a 

Queen "     Just  at   this  moment,  somehow 

or  other,  they  began  to  run. 

Alice  never  could  quite  make  out,  in  think- 
ing it  over  afterwards  how  it  was  that  they 
began :  all  she  remembers  is,  that  they  were 
running  hand  in  hand,  and  the  Queen  went  so 
fast  that  it  was  all  she  could  do  to  keep  up 
with  her:  and  still  the  Queen  kept  crying 
"Faster!  Faster!"  but  Alice  felt  she  could  not 
go  faster,  though  she  had  no  breath  left  to 
say  so. 

The  most  curious  part  of  the  thing  was,  that 
the  trees  and  the  other  things  round  them 
never  changed  their  places  at  all :  however  fast 
they  went,  they  never  seemed  to  pass  any- 
thing. "I  wonder  if  all  the  things  move 
along  with  us?"  thought  poor  puzzled  Alice. 
And  the  Queen  seemed  to  guess  her  thoughts, 
for  she  cried  "Faster!  Don't  try  to  talk!" 

Not  that  Alice  had  any  idea  of  doing  that. 
She  felt  as  if  she  would  never  be  able   to  talk 


38 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


again,  she  was  getting  so  much  out  of  breath : 
and  still  the  Queen  cried  "Faster!  Faster!" 
and  dragged  her  along.  "Are  we  nearly  there?" 
Alice  managed  to  pant  out  at  last. 

"Nearly  there!"  the  Queen  repeated.  "Why, 
we  passed  it  ten  minutes  ago!  Faster!"  And 
they  ran  on  for  a  time  in  silence,  with  the  wind 
whistling  in  Alice's  ears,  and  almost  blowing 
her  hair  off  her  head,  she  fancied. 


"Now!  Now!"  cried  the  Queen.  "Faster! 
Faster!"  And  they  went  so  fast  that  at  last 
they  seemed  to  skim  through  the  air,  hardly 
touching  the  ground  with  their  feet,  till  sud- 
denly, just  as  Alice  was  getting  quite  ex- 
hausted, they  stopped,  and  she  found  herself 
sitting  on  the  ground,  breathless  and  giddy. 

The  Queen  propped  her  up  against  a  tree, 
and  said  kindly,  "You  may  rest  a  little,  now." 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  39 

Alice  looked  round  her  in  great  surprise. 
"Why,  I  do  believe  we've  been  under  this 
tree  the  whole  time!  Everything's  just  as  it 
was!" 

"Of  course  it  is, "  said  the  Queen.  "What 
would  you  have  it?" 

"Well,  in  our  country,"  said  Alice,  still 
panting  a  little,  "you'd  generally  get  to  some- 
where else — if  you  ran  very  fast  for  a  long  time 
as  we've  been  doing." 

"A  slow  sort  of  country!"  said  the  Queen. 
"Now,  here,  you  see,  it  takes  all  the  running 
you  can  do,  to  keep  in  the  same  place.  If  you 
want  to  get  somewhere  else,  you  must  run  at 
least  twice  as  fast  as  that!" 

"I'd  rather  not  try,  please!"  said  Alice. 
"I'm  quite  content  to  stay  here — only  I  am  so 
hot  and  thirsty!" 

"I  know  what  you'd  like!"  the  Queen  said 
good-naturedly,  taking  a  little  box  out  of  her 
pocket.      "Have  a  biscuit?" 

Alice  thought  it  would  not  be  civil  to  say 
"No,"  though  it  wasn't  at  all  what  she  wanted. 
So  she  took  it,  and  ate  it  as  well  as  she  could : 
and  it  was  very  dry :  and  she  thought  she  had 
never  been  so  nearly  choked  in  all  her  life. 

"While  you're  refreshing  yourself, "  said  the 
Queen,  "I'll  just  take  the  measurements." 
And  she  took  a  ribbon  out  of  her  pocket, 
marked  in  inches,  and  began  measuring  the 
ground,  and  sticking  little  pegs  in  here  and 
there. 

"At  the  end  of  two  yards,"  she  said,  putting 


40  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

in  a  peg  to  mark  the  distance,  "I  shall  give 
you  your  directions — have  another  biscuit?" 

"No,  thank  you,"  said  Alice;  "one's  quite 
enough!" 

"Thirst  quenched,  I  hope?"  said  the  Queen. 

Alice  did  not  know  what  to  say  to  this,  but 
luckily  the  Queen  did  not  wait  for  an  answer, 
but  went  on.  "At  the  end  of  three  yards  I 
shall  repeat  them — for  fear  of  your  forgetting 
them.  At  the  end  of  four,  I  shall  say  good- 
bye.    And  at  the  end  of  five,  I  shall  go!" 

She  had  got  all  the  pegs  put  in  by  this  time, 
and  Alice  looked  on  with  great  interest  as  she 
returned  to  the  tree,  and  then  began  slowly 
walking  down  the  row. 

At  the  two- yard  peg  she  faced  round,  and 
said,  "A  pawn  goes  two  squares  in  its  first 
move,  you  know.  So  you'll  go  very  quickly 
through  the  Third  Square — by  railway,  I 
should  think,  and  you'll  find  yourself  in  the 
Fourth  Square  in  no  time.  Well,  that  square 
belongs  to  Tweedledum  and  Tweedledee — the 
Fifth  is  mostly  water — the  Sixth  belongs  to 
Humpty  Dumpty — But  you  make  no  re- 
mark?" 

"I — I  didn't  know  I  had  to  make  one — just 
then,"  Alice  faltered  out. 

"You  should  have  said,"  the  Queen  went  on 
in  a  tone  of  grave  reproof,  "  'It's  extremely 
kind  of  you  to  tell  me  all  this' — however,  we'll 
suppose  it  said — the  Seventh  Square  is  all  for- 
est— however,  one  of  the  Knights  will  show 
you  the  way — and  in  the  Eighth  Square  we 
shall  be  Queens  together,  and  it's  all  feasting 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  41 

and  fun!"  Alice  got  up  and  curtseyed,  and 
sat  down  again. 

At  the  next  peg  the  Queen  turned  again,  and 
this  time  she  said,  "Speak  in  French  when 
you  can't  think  of  the  English  for  a  thing — 
turn  out  your  toes  as  you  walk — and  remember 
who  you  are!"  She  did  not  wait  for  Alice  to 
curtsey  this  time,  but  walked  on  quickly  to 
the  next  peg,  where  she  turned  for  a  moment 
to  say  "Good-bye,"  and  then  hurried  on  to  the 
last. 

How  it  happened,  Alice  never  knew,  but 
exactly  as  she  came  to  the  last  peg,  she  was 
gone.  Whether  she  vanished  into  the  air,  or 
whether  she  ran  quickly  into  the  wood  ("and 
she  can  run  very  fast!"  thought  Alice),  there 
was  no  way  of  guessing,  but  she  was  gone,  and 
Alice  began  to  remember  that  she  was  a 
Pawn,  and  that  it  would  soon  be  time  for  her 
to  move. 


42  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS 


CHAPTER  III. 

LOOKING-GLASS    INSECTS. 

Of  course,  the  first  thing  to  do  was  to  make 
a  grand  survey  of  the  country  she  was  going 
to  travel  through.  "It's  something  very  like 
learning  geography,"  thought  Alice,  as  she 
stood  on  tiptoe  in  hopes  of  being  able  to  see  a 
little  further.  "Principal  rivers  —  there  are 
none.  Principal  mountains — I'm  on  the  only 
one,  but  I  don't  think  it's  got  any  name. 
Principal  towns — why,  what  are  those  crea- 
tures, making  honey  down  there?  They  can't 
be  bees — nobody  ever  saw  bees  a  mile  off,  you 

know "  and  for  some  time  she  stood  silent, 

watching  one  of  them  that  was  bustling  about 
among  the  flowers,  poking  its  proboscis  into 
them,  "just  as  if  it  was  a  regular  bee, ' '  thought 
Alice. 

However,  this  was  anything  but  a  regular 
bee:  in  fact,  it  was  an  elephant — as  Alice  soon 
found  out,  though  the  idea  quite  took  her  breath 
away  at  first.  "And  what  enormous  flowers 
they  must  be!"  was  her  next  ideal.  "Some- 
thing like  cottages  with  the  roofs  taken  off, 
and  stalks  put  to  them — and  what  quantities 
of  honey  they  must  make!  I  think  I'll  go 
down  and — no,  I  won't  go  just  yet,"  she  went 
on,  checking  herself  just  as  she  was  beginning 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  43 

to  run  down  the  hill,  and  trying  to  find  some 
excuse  for  turning  shy  so  suddenly.  "It'll 
never  do  to  go  down  among  them  without  a 
good  long  branch  to  brush  them  away — and 
what  fun  it'll  be  when  they  ask  me  how  I 
liked   my  walk.     I   shall  say,   4Oh,   I  liked  it 

well  enough '  (here  came  the  favorite  little 

toss  of  the  head),  'only,  it  was  so  dusty  and 
hot,  and  the  elephants  did  tease  so!' 

"I  think  I'll  go  down  the  other  way,"  she 
said  after  a  pause;  "and  perhaps  I  may  visit 
the  elephants  later  on.  Besides,  I  do  so  want 
to  get  into  the  Third  Square!" 

So,  with  this  excuse,  she  ran  down  the  hill, 
and  jumped  over  the  first  of  the  six  little 
brooks. 


"Tickets,  please!"  said  the  Guard,  putting 
his  head  in  at  the  window.  In  a  moment 
everybody  was  holding  out  a  ticket ;  they  were 
about  the  same  size  as  the  people,  and  quite 
seemed  to  fill  the  carriage. 

"Now,  then!  Show  your  ticket,  child!"  the 
Guard  went  on,  looking  angrily  at  Alice.  And 
a  great  many  voices  all  said  together  ("like 
the  chorus  of  a  song,"  thought  Alice),  "Don't 
keep  him  waiting,  child!  Why,  his  time  is 
worth  a  thousand  pounds  a  minute ! ' ' 

"I'm  afraid  I  haven't  got  one,"  Alice  said  in 
a  frightened  tone;  "there  wasn't  a  ticket  office 


44  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

where  I  came  from."  And  again  the  chorus 
of  voices  went  on.  "There  wasn't  room  for 
one  where  she  came  from.  The  land  there  is 
worth  a  thousand  pounds  an  inch!'' 

"Don't  make  excuses,"  said  the  Guard; 
"you  should  have  bought  one  from  the  engine 
driver."  And  once  more  the  chorus  of  voices 
went  on  with  "The  man  that  drives  the  en- 
gine. Why,  the  smoke  alone  is  worth  a  thou- 
sand pounds  a  puff!" 

Alice  thought  to  herself,  "Then  there's  no 
use  in  speaking."  The  voices  didn't  join  in, 
this  time,  as  she  hadn't  spoken,  but,  to  her 
great  surprise,  they  all  thought  in  chorus  (I 
hope  you  understand  what  thinking  in  chorus 
means — for  I  must  confess  that  I  don't),  "Bet- 
ter say  nothing  at  all.  Language  is  worth  a 
thousand  pounds  a  word!" 

"I  shall  dream  about  a  thousand  pounds  to- 
night, I  know  I  shall!"  thought  Alice. 

All  this  time  the  Guard  was  looking  at  her, 
first  through  a  telescope,  then  through  a  micro- 
scope, and  then  through  an  opera-glass.  At 
last  he  said,  "You're  traveling  the  wrong 
way,"  and  shut  up  the  window,  and  went 
away. 

"So  young  a  child,"  said  the  gentleman 
sitting  opposite  her  (he  was  dressed  in  white 
paper),  "ought  to  know  which  way  she's  go- 
ing, even  if  she  doesn't  know  her  own 
name!" 

A  Goat,  that  was  sitting  next  to  the  gentle- 
man in  white,  shut  his  eyes  and  said  in  a  loud 
voice,  "She  ought  to  know   her    way  to  the 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  45 

ticket  office,  even  if  she  doesn't  know  her 
alphabet!" 

There  was  a  beetle  sitting-  next  the  Goat  (it 
was  a  very  queer  carriage-full  of  passengers 
altogether),  and  as  the  rule  seemed  to  be  that 
they  should  all  speak  in  turn,  he  went  on  with, 
"She'll  have  to  go  back  from  here  as  luggage. " 

Alice  couldn't  see  who  was  sitting  beyond 
the  Beetle,  but  a  hoarse  voice  spoke  next. 
"Change  engines — "it  said,  and  there  it 
choked  and  was  obliged  to  leave  off. 

"It  sounds  like  a  horse,"  Alice  thought 
to  herself.  And  an  extremely  small  voice,  close 

to  her  ear,  Said,  "You  might  make  a  joke  on  that -some- 
thing about  'horse'  and  'hoarse,'  you  know." 

Then  a  very  gentle  voice  in  the  distance 
said,  "She  must  be  labeled,  'Lass,  with  care,' 
you  know — " 

And  after  that  other  voices  went  on  ("What 
a  number  of  people  there  are  in  the  carriage!" 
thought  Alice),  saying,  "She  must  go  by  post, 

as  she's  got  a  head  on  her "     "She  must 

be  sent  as  a  message  by  the  telegraph " 

"She  must  draw  the  train  herself  the  rest  of 
the  way , "  and  so  on. 

But  the  gentleman  dressed  in  white  paper 
leaned  forward  and  whispered  in  her  ear, 
"Never  mind  what  they  all  say,  my  dear,  but 
take  a  return  ticket  every  time  the  train 
stops. ' ' 

"Indeed,  I  sha'n't!"  Alice  said  rather  im- 
patiently. "I  don't  belong  to  this  railway 
journey  at  all — I  was  in  a  wood  just  now — and 
I  wish  I  could  get  back  there!" 


46  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"You  might  make  a  joke  on  that,"  Said  the  little  Voice 
dose  to  her  ear    "something    about     'you    would    if    you 

could,'  you  know." 

"Don't  tease  so,"  said  Alice,  looking  about 
in  vain  to  see  where  the  voice  came  from.  "If 
you're  so  anxious  to  have  a  joke  made,  why 
don't  you  make  one  yourself?" 

The  little  voice  sighed  deeply.  It  was  very 
unhappy,  evidently,  and  Alice  would  have  said 
something  pitying  to  comfort  it,  "if  it  would 
only  sigh  like  other  people!"  she  thought. 
But  this  was  such  a  wonderfully  small  sigh, 
that  she  wouldn't  have  heard  it  at  all,  if  it 
hadn't  come  quite  close  to  her  ear.  The  con- 
sequence of  this  was  that  it  tickled  her  ear 
very  much,  and  quite  took  off  her  thoughts 
from  the  unhappiness  of  the  poor  little  crea- 
ture. 

"I  know  you  are  a  friend,"  the  little  Voice  Went  On  ; 
"a  dear  friend,  and  an  old  friend.  And  you  won't  hurt  me, 
though  I  am  an  insect." 

"What  kind  of  insect?"  Alice  inquired,  a  lit- 
tle anxiously.  What  she  really  wanted  to  know 
was,  whether  it  could  sting  or  not,  but  she 
thought  this  wouldn't  be  quite  a  civil  question 
to  ask. 

"What,  then  you  don't — "  the  little  voice  began, 
when  it  was  drowned  by  a  shrill  scream  from 
the  engine,  and  everybody  jumped  up  in  alarm, 
Alice  among  the  rest. 

The  Horse,  who  had  put  his  head  out  of  the 
window,  quietly  drew  it  in  and  said,  "It's  only 
a  brook  we  have  to  jump  over. "  Everybody 
seemed  satisfied  with  this,  though  Alice  felt  a 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  47 

little  nervous  at  the  idea  of  trains  jumping  at 
all.  "However,  it'll  take  us  into  the  Fourth 
Square,  that's  some  comfort!"  she  said  to  her- 
self. In  another  moment  she  felt  the  carriage 
rise  straight  up  into  the  air,  and  in  her  fright 
she  caught  at  the  thing  nearest  to  her  hand, 
which  happened  to  be  the  Goat's  beard. 


But  the  beard  seemed  to  melt  away  as  she 
touched  it,  and  she  found  herself  sitting  quietly 
under  a  tree — while  the  Gnat  (for  that  was  the 
insect  she  had  been  talking  to)  was  balancing 
itself  on  a  twig  just  over  her  head,  and  fanning 
her  with  its  wings. 

It  certainly  was  a  very  large  Gnat ;  "about 
the  size  of  a  chicken,"  Alice  thought.  Still, 
she  couldn't  feel  nervous  with  it,  after  they 
had  been  talking  together  so  long. 

" — then  you  don't  like  all  insects?"  the  Gnat 
went  on,  as  quietly  as  if  nothing  had  hap- 
pened. 

"I  like  them  when  they  can  talk,"  Alice 
said.  "None  of  them  ever  talk,  where  I  come 
from. ' ' 

"What  sort  of  insects  do  you  rejoice  in, 
where  you  come  from?"  the  Gnat  inquired. 

"I  don't  rejoice  in  insects  at  all,"  Alice  ex- 
plained, "because  I'm  rather  afraid  of  them — 
at  least  the  large  kinds.  But  I  can  tell  you  the 
names  of  some  of  them." 


48 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


"Of  course,  they  answer  to  their  names," 
the  Gnat  remarked  carelessly. 

"I  never  knew  them  do  it." 

"What's  the  use  of  their  having  names,"  the 
Gnat  said,  "if  they  won't  answer  to  them?" 

"No  use  to  them,"  said  Alice;  "but  it's  use- 
ful to  the  people  that  name  them,  I  suppose. 
If  not,  why  do  things  have  names  at  all?" 


"I  can't  say,"  the  Gnat  replied.  "Further 
on,  in  the  wood  down  there,  they've  got  no 
names — however,  go  on  with  your  list  of  in- 
sects; you're  wasting  time." 

"Well,  there's  the  Horse-fly,"  Alice  began, 
counting  off  the  names  on  her  fingers. 

"All  right, "  said  the  Gnat.  "Half-way  up 
that  bush,  you'll  see  a  Rocking-horse-fly,  if 
you  look.     It's  made  entirely   of    wood,  and 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  49 

gets  about  by  swinging  itself  from  branch  to 
branch." 

"What  does  it  live  on?"  Alice  asked,  with 
great  curiosity. 

"Sap  and  sawdust,"  said  the  Gnat.  "Go  on 
with  the  list." 

Alice  looked  at  the  Rocking-horse-fly  with 
great  interest,  and  made  up  her  mind  that  it 
must  have  been  just  repainted,  it  looked  so 
bright  and  sticky;  and  then  she  went  on. 

"And  there's  the  Dragon-fly." 

"Look  on  the  branch  above  your  head,"  said 
the  Gnat,  "and  there  you'll  find  a  Snap-dragon- 
fly. Its  body  is  made  of  plum-pudding,  its 
wings  of  holly-leaves,  and  its  head  is  a  raisin 
burning  in  brandy. ' ' 

"And  what  does  it  live  on?"  Alice  asked,  as 
before. 

"Frumenty  and  mince-pie, "  the  Gnat  replied, 
"and  it  makes  its  nest  in  a  Christmas-box." 

"And  then  there's  the  Butterfly,"  Alice 
went  on,  after  she  had  taken  a  good  look  at  the 
insect  with  its  head  on  fire,  and  had  thought  to 
herself,  "I  wonder  if  that's  the  reason  insects 
are  so  fond  of  flying  into  candles — because  they 
want  to  turn  into  Snap-dragon-flies!" 

"Crawling  at  your  feet,"  said  the  Gnat 
(Alice  drew  her  feet  back  in  some  alarm), 
"you  may  observe  a  Bread-and-butter- fly.  Its 
wings  are  thin  slices  of  bread-and-butter,  its 
body  is  a  crust,  and  its  head  is  a  lump  of 
sugar." 

"And  what  does  it  live  on?" 

"Weak  tea  with  cream  in  it. " 

4    Looking  Glass 


50  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

A  new  difficulty  came  into  Alice's  head. 
"Supposing  it  couldn't  find  any?"  she  sug- 
gested. 

"Then  it  would  die,  of  course." 

"But  that  must  happen  very  often,"  Alice 
remarked  thoughtfully. 

"It  always  happens,"  said  the  Gnat. 

After  this,  Alice  was  silent  for  a  minute  or 
two,  pondering.  The  Gnat  amused  itself 
meanwhile  by  humming  round  and  round  her 
head:  at  last  it  settled  again  and  remarked  "I 
suppose  you  don't  want  to  lose  your  name?" 

"No,  indeed,"  Alice  said,   a  little  anxious- 

"And  yet  I  don't  know,"  the  Gnat  went  on 
in  a  careless  tone :  "only  think  how  convenient 
it  would  be  if  you  could  manage  to  go  home 
without  it!  For  instance,  if  the  governess 
wanted   to  call  you  to  your  lessons,  she  would 

call  out  'Come  here , '  and  there  she  would 

have  to  leave  off,  because  there  wouldn't  be 
any  name  for  her  to  call,  and  of  course  you 
wouldn't  have  to  go,  you  know." 

"That  would  never  do,  I'm  sure,"  said 
Alice:  "the  governess  would  never  think  of 
excusing  my  lessons  for  that.  If  she  couldn't 
remember  my  name,  she'd  call  me  'Miss,'  as 
the  servants  do." 

"Well,  if  she  said  'Miss,'  and  didn't  say  any- 
thing more,"  the  Gnat  remarked,  "of  course 
you'd  miss  your  lessons.  That's  a  joke.  I 
wish  you  had  made  it." 

"Why  do.  you  wish  I  had  made  it?"  Alice 
asked.      "It's  a  verv  bad  one.  " 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  51 

But  the  Gnat  only  sighed  deeply,  while  two 
large  tears  came  rolling  down  its  cheeks. 

"You  shouldn't  make  jokes,"  Alice  said,  "if 
it  makes  you  so  unhappy." 

Then  came  another  of  those  melancholy  little 
sighs,  and  this  time  the  poor  Gnat  really  seemed 
to  have  sighed  itself  away,  for,  when  Alice 
looked  up,  there  was  nothing  whatever  to  be 
seen  on  the  twig,  and,  as  she  was  getting  quite 
chilly  with  sitting  still  so  long,  she  got  up  and 
walked  on. 

She  very  soon  came  to  an  open  field,  with  a 
wood  on  the  other  side  of  it :  it  looked  much 
darker  than  the  last  wood,  and  Alice  felt  a 
little  timid  about  going  into  it.  However,  on 
second  thoughts,  she  made  up  her  mind  to  go 
on.  "for  I  certainly  won't  go  back,"  she 
thought  to  herself,  and  this  was  the  only  way 
to  the  Eighth  Square. 

"This  must  be  the  wood,"  she  said  thought- 
fully to  herself,  "where  things  have  no  names. 

I  wonder  what'll  become  of  my  name  when  I 
go  in?  I  shouldn't  like  to  lose  it  at  all — 
because  they'd  have  to  give  me  another,  and  it 
would  be  almost  certain  to  be  an  ugly  one. 
But  then  the  fun  would  be,  trying  to  find  the 
creature  that  had  got  my  old  name !  That's 
just  like  the  advertisements,  you  know,  when 
people  lose   dogs — 'answers    to   the  name   of 

II  Dash:"  had  on  a  brass  collar' — just  fancy  call- 
ing everything  you  met  'Alice,'  till  one  of 
them  answered!  Only  they  wouldn't  answer 
at  all,  if  they  were  wise. " 

She  was  rambling  on  in  this  way  when  she 


52  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

reached  the  wood:  it  looked  very  cool  and 
shady.  ""Well,  at  any  rate  it's  a  great  com- 
fort,"  she  said  as  she  stepped  under  the  trees, 
"after  being  so  hot,  to  get  into  the  — into  the 
— into  what?"  she  went  on,  rather  surprised  at 
not  being  able  to  think  of  the  word.  "I  mean 
to  get  under  the — under  the — under  this,  you 
know!"  putting  her  hand  on  the  trunk  of  the 
tree.  "What  does  it  call  itself,  I  wonder?  I 
do  believe  it's  got  no  name — why,  to  be  sure  it 
hasn't!" 

She  stood  silent  for  a  minute,  thinking:  then 
she  suddenly  began  again.  "Then  it  really 
has  happened,  after  all!  And  now,  who  am  I? 
I  will  remember,  if  I  can!  I'm  determined 
to  do  it!"  But  being  determined  didn't  help 
her  much,  and  all  she  could  say,  after  a  great 
deal  of  puzzling,  was  "L,  I  know  it  begins 
with  L!" 

Just  then  a  Fawn  came  wandering  by:  it 
looked  at  Alice  with  its  large  gentle  eyes,  but 
didn't  seem  at  all  frightened.  "Here  then! 
Here  then!"  Alice  said,  as  she  held  out  her 
hand  and  tried  to  stroke  it ;  but  it  only  started 
back  a  little,  and  then  stood  looking  at  her 
again. 

"What  do  you  call  yourself?"  the  Fawn  said 
at  last.     Such  a  soft  sweet  voice  it  had! 

"I  wish  I  knew!"  thought  poor  Alice.  She 
answered,  rather  sadly,  "Nothing,  just 
now. ' ' 

"Think  again,"  it  said:  "that  won't  do." 

Alice  thought,  but  nothing  came  of  it. 
"Please,  would  you  tell  me  what  you  call  your- 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  53 


self?"  she  said  timidly.  "I  think  that  might 
help  a  little. ' ' 

"I'll  tell  you,  if  you'll  come  a  little  further 
on,"  the  Fawn  said.  "I  can't  remember 
here." 

So  they  walked  on  together  through  the 
wood,  Alice  with  her  arms  clasped  lovingly 
round  the  soft  neck  of  the  Fawn,  till  they  came 
out  into  another  open  field,  and  here  the  Fawn 
gave  a  sudden  bound  into  the  air,  and  shook 
itself  free  from  Alice's  arm.  "I'm  a  Fawn!" 
it  cried  out  in  a  voice  of  delight.      "And,  dear 


54  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

me!  you're  a  human  child!"  A  sudden  look 
of  alarm  came  into  its  beautiful  brown  eyes, 
and  in  another  moment  it  had  darted  away  at 
full  speed. 

Alice  stood  looking  after  it,  almost  ready  to 
cry  with  vexation  at  having  lost  her  dear  little 
fellow-traveler  so  suddenly.  "However,  I 
know  my  name  now,"  she  said:  "that's  some 
comfort.  Alice — Alice — I  won't  forget  it 
again.  And  now,  which  of  these  finger-posts 
ought  I  to  follow,  I  wonder?" 

It  was  not  a  very  difficult  question  to  answer, 
as  there  was  only  one  road  through  the  wood, 
and  the  two  finger-posts  both  pointed  along 
it.  I'll  settle  it,"  Alice  said  to  herself, 
"when  the  road  divides  and  they  point  differ- 
ent ways. ' ' 

But  this  did  not  seem  likely  to  happen.  She 
went  on  and  on,  a  long  way,  but,  wherever  the 
road  divided,  there  were  sure  to  be  two  finger- 
posts pointing  the  same  way,  one  marked  'To 
Tweedledum's  House,'  and  the  other  'To  the 
House  of  Tweedledee. ' 

"I  do  believe,"  said  Alice  at  last,  "that  they 
live  in  the  same  house!  I  wonder  I  never 
thought  of  that  before — But  I  can't  stay  there 
long.  I'll  just  call  and  say  'How  d'ye  do?' 
and  ask  them  the  way  out  of  the  wood.  If  I 
could  only  get  to  the  Eighth  Square  before  it 
gets  dark!"  So  she  wandered  on,  talking  to 
herself  as  she  went,  till,  on  turning  a  sharp 
corner,  she  came  upon  two  fat  little  men,  so 
suddenly  that  she  could  not  help  starting  back, 
but  in  another  moment  she  recovered  herself, 
feeling  sure  that  they  must  be. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


55 


CHAPTER  IV. 

TWEEDLEDUM    AND    TWEEDLEDEE. 

They  were  standing  under  a  tree,  each  with 
an  arm  round  the  other's  neck,  and  Alice  knew 
which  was  which  in  a  moment,  because  one  of 
them  had   'DUM'   embroidered  on  his  collar, 


and  the  other  'DEE.'  "I  suppose  they've 
each  got  'TWEEDLE'  round  at  the  back  of 
the  collar,"  she  said  to  herself. 

They  stood  so  still  that  she  quite  forgot  they 


56  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

were  alive,  and  she  was  just  going  round  to 
see  if  the  word  'TWEEDLE'  was  written  at 
the  back  of  each  collar,  when  she  was  startled 
by  a  voice  coming  from  the  one  marked 
lDUM.' 

"If  you  think  we're  wax-works,"  he  said, 
"you  ought  to  pay,  you  know.  Wax- works 
weren't  made  to  be  looked  at  for  nothing. 
Nohow!" 

"Contrariwise,"  added  the  one  marked 
'DEE,'  "if  you  think  we're  alive,  you  ought 
to  speak. ' ' 

"I'm  sure  I'm  very  sorry,"  was  all  Alice 
could  say ;  for  the  words  of  the  old  song  kept 
ringing  through  her  head  like  the  ticking  of  a 
clock,  and  she  could  hardly  help  saying  them 
out  loud : — 

"Tweedledum  and  Tweedledee 

Agreed  to  have  a  battle ; 
For  Tweedledum  said  Tweedledee 

Had  spoiled  his  nice  new  rattle. 

Just  then  flew  down  a  monstrous  crow, 

As  black  as  a  tar-barrel; 
Which  frightened  both  the  heroes  so, 

They  quite  forgot  their  quarrel." 

"I  know  what  you're  thinking  about,"  said 
Tweedledum;  "but  it  isn't  so,  nohow." 

"Contrariwise,"  continued  Tweedledee,  "if 
it  was  so,  it  might  be ;  and  if  it  were  so,  it 
would  be;  but  as  it  isn't,  it  ain't.  That's 
logic." 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  57 

4 'I  was  thinking,"  Alice  said  very  politely, 
''which  is  the  best  way  out  of  this  wood :  it's 
getting  so  dark.     Would  you  tell  me,  please?" 

But  the  fat  little  men  only  looked  at  each 
other  and  grinned. 

They  looked  so  exactly  like  a  couple  of  great 
schoolboys,  that  Alice  couldn't  help  pointing 
her  finger  at  Tweedledum,  and  saying  "First 
Boy!" 

"Nohow!"  Tweedledum  cried  out  briskly, 
and  shut  his  mouth  up  again  with  a  snap. 

"Next  Boy!"  said  Alice,  passing  on  to 
Tweedledee,  though  she  felt  quite  certain  he 
would  only  shout  out  "Contrariwise!"  and  so 
he  did. 

"You've  begun  wrong!"  cried  Tweedledum. 
"The  first  thing  in  a  visit  is  to  say  'How 
d'ye  do?'  and  shake  hands!"  And  here  the 
two  brothers  gave  each  other  a  hug,  and  then 
they  held  out  the  two  hands  that  were  free,  to 
shake  hands  with  her. 

Alice  did  not  like  shaking  hands  with  either 
of  them  first,  for  fear  of  hurting  the  other 
one's  feelings;  so,  as  the  best  way  out  of  the 
difficulty,  she  took  hold  of  both  hands  at  once : 
the  next  moment  they  were  dancing  round  in 
a  ring.  This  seemed  quite  natural  (she 
remembered  afterwards),  and  she  was  not 
even  surprised  to  hear  music  playing:  it 
seemed  to  come  from  the  tree  under  which  they 
were  dancing,  and  it  was  done  (as  well  as  she 
could  make  it  out)  by  the  branches  rubbing 
one  across  the  other,  like  fiddles  and  fiddle- 
sticks. 


58  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"But  it  certainly  was  funny,"  (Alice  said 
afterwards,  when  she  was  telling  her  sister  the 
history  of  all  this,)  "to  find  myself  singing 
'Here  we  go  round  the  mulberry  bush. '  I 
don't  know  when  I  began  it,  but  somehow  I 
felt  as  if  I'd  been  singing  it  a  long  time!" 

The  other  two  dancers  were  fat,  and  very 
soon  out  of  breath.  "Four  times  round  is 
enough  for  one  dance,"  Tweedledum  panted 
out,  and  they  left  off  dancing  as  suddenly  as 
they  had  begun :  the  music  stopped  at  the  same 
moment. 

Then  they  let  go  of  Alice's  hands,  and  stood 
looking  at  her  for  a  minute  :  there  was  a  rather 
awkward  pause,  as  Alice  didn't  know  how  to 
begin  a  conversation  with  people  she  had  just 
been  dancing  with.  "It  would  never  do  to  say 
'How  d'ye  do?'  now,"  she  said  to  herself:  "we 
seem  to  have  got  beyond  that,  somehow." 

"I  hope  you're  not  much  tired?"  she  said  at 
last. 

"Nohow.  And  thank  you  very  much  for 
asking,"  said  Tweedledum. 

"So  much  obliged!"  added  Tweedledee. 
"You  like  poetry?" 

"Ye-es,  pretty  well — some  poetry,"  Alice 
said  doubtfully.  "Would  you  tell  me  which 
road  leads  out  of  the  wood?" 

"What  shall  I  repeat  to  her?"  said  Tweed- 
ledee, looking  round  at  Tweedledum  with  great 
solemn  eyes,  and  not  noticing  Alice's  question. 

"  'The  Walrus  and  the  Carpenter'  is  the 
longest,"  Tweedledum  replied,  giving  his 
brother  an  affectionate  hue. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  59 

Tweedledee  began  instantly: 

The  sun  was  shining " 

Here  Alice  ventured  to  interrupt  him.  "If 
it's  very  long,"  she  said,  as  politely  as  she 
could,  "would  you  please  tell  me  first  which 
road ' ' 

Tweedledee  smiled  gently,  and  began  again : 


"The  sun  was  shining  on  the  sea, 
Shining  with  all  his  might: 

He  did  his  very  best  to  make 

The  billows  smooth  and  bright — 

And  this  was  odd,  because  it  was 
The  middle  of  the  night. 


The  moon  was  shining  sulkily, 
Because  she  thought  the  sun 

Had  got  no  business  to  be  there 
After  the  day  was  done — 

'It's  very  rude  of  him,'  she  said, 
'To  come  and  spoil  the  fun!' 


The  sea  was  wet  as  wet  could  be, 
The  sands  were  dry  as  dry. 

You  could  not  see  a  cloud,  because 
No  cloud  was  in  the  sky : 

No  birds  were  flying  overhead — 
There  were  no  birds  to  fly. 


60 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


The  Walrus  and  the  carpenter 
Were  walking  close  at  hand: 

They  wept  like  anything  to  see 
Such  quantities  of  sand: 

'If  this  were  only  cleared  away, 
They  said,  'it  would  be  grand!' 


'If  seven  maids  with  seven  mops 
Swept  it  for  half  a  year, 

Do  you  suppose,'  the  Walrus  said, 
'That  they  could  get  it  clear?' 

'I  doubt  it,'  said  the  Carpenter, 
And  shed  a  bitter  tear. 


'O  Oysters,  come  and  walk  with  us!' 

The  Walrus  did  beseech. 
'A  pleasant  walk,  a  pleasant  talk, 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  61 

Along  the  briny  beach: 
We  cannot  do  with  more  than  four, 
To  give  a  hand  to  each. ' 

The  eldest  Oyster  looked  at  him, 

But  never  a  word  he  said: 
The  eldest  Oyster  winked  his  eye, 

And  shook  his  heavy  head — 
Meaning  to  say  he  did  not  choose 

To  leave  the  Oyster-bed. 

But  four  young  Oysters  hurried  up, 

All  eager  for  the  treat : 
Their  coats    were   brushed,  their   faces 
washed, 

Their  shoes  were  clean  and  neat — 
And  this  was  odd,  because,  you  know, 

They  hadn't  any  feet. 

Four  other  Oysters  followed  them, 

And  yet  another  four; 
And  thick  and  fast  they  came  at  last, 

And  more,  and  more,  and  more — 
All  hopping  through  the  frothy  waves, 

And  scrambling  to  the  shore. 

The  Walrus  and  the  Carpenter 

Walked  on  a  mile  or  so, 
And  then  they  rested  on  a  rock 

Conveniently  low: 

And  all  the  little  Oysters  stood 

B       And  waited  in  a  row. 
5 


62 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


'The  time  has  come, '  the  Walrus  said, 

'To  talk  of  many  things: 
Of  shoes — and  ships — and  sealing-wax — 

Of  cabbages — and  kings — 
And  why  the  sea  is  boiling  hot — 

And  whether  pigs  have  wings. ' 


'But  wait  a  bit,'  the  Oysters  cried, 
'Before  we  have  our  chat ; 

For  some  of  us  are  out  of  breath, 
And  all  of  us  are  fat!' 

'No  hurry!'  said  the  Carpenter. 
They  thanked  him  much  for  that. 

'A  loaf  of  bread,'  the  Walrus  said, 
'Is  what  we  chiefly  need: 

Pepper  and  vinegar  besides 
Are  very  good  indeed — 

Now,  if  you're  ready,  Oysters  dear, 
We  can  beein  to  feed. ' 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


63 


'But  not  on  us!'  the  Oysters  cried, 

Turning  a  little  blue. 
'After  such  kindness,  that  would  be 

A  dismal  thing  to  do!' 
'The  night  is  fine,'  the  Walrus  said. 

'Do  you  admire  the  view? 

'It  was  so  kind  of  you  to  come! 

And  you  are  very  nice !' 
The  Carpenter  said  nothing  but 

'Cut  us  another  slice. 
I  wish  you  were  not  quite  so  deaf — 

I've  had  to  ask  you  twice!' 


It  seems  a  shame,'  the  Walrus  said, 
'To  play  them  such  a  trick. 

After  we've  brought  them  out  so  far, 
And  made  them  trot  so  quick!' 

The  Carpenter  said  nothing  but 
The  butter's  spread  too  thick!' 


64  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

'I  weep  for  you,'  the  Walrus  said: 

'I  deeply  sympathize. ' 
With  sobs  and  tears  he  sorted  out 

Those  of  the  largest  size, 
Holding  his  pocket-handkerchief 

Before  his  streaming  eyes. 

'O  Oysters,'  said  the  Carpenter, 
'You've  had  a  pleasant  run! 

Shall  we  be  trotting  home  again?' 
But  answer  came  there  none — 

And  this  was  scarcely  odd,  because 
They'd  eaten  every  one.  " 

"I  like  the  Walrus  best,"  said  Alice:  "be- 
cause he  was  a  little  sorry  for  the  poor  oysters. " 

"He  ate  more  than  the  Carpenter,  though," 
said  Tweedledee.  "You  see  he  held  his  hand- 
kerchief in  front, so  that  the  Carpenter  couldn't 
count  how  many  he  took:  contrariwise." 

"That  was  mean!"  Alice  said  indignantly. 
"Then  I  like  the  Carpenter  best— if  he  didn't 
eat  so  many  as  the  Walrus." 

"But  he  ate  as  many  as  he  could  get,"  said 
Tweedledum. 

This  was  a  puzzler.  After  a  pause,  Alice 
began,  "Well!  They  were  both  very  unpleas- 
ant characters "     Here  she  checked  herself 

in  some  alarm,  at  hearing  something  that 
sounded  to  her  like  the  puffing  of  a  large 
steam-engine  in  the  wood  near  them,  though 
she  feared  it  was  more  likely  to  be  a  wild 
beast.  "Are  there  any  lions  or  tigers  about 
here?"  she  asked  timidly. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  65 

"It's  only  the  Red  King  snoring,"  said 
Tweedledee. 

"Come  and  look  at  him!"  the  brothers  cried, 
and  they  each  took  one  of  Alice's  hands,  and 
led  her  up  to  where  the  King  was  sleeping. 

"Isn't  he  a  lovely  sight?"  said  Tweedledum. 

Alice  couldn't  say  honestly  that  he  was. 
He  had  a  tall  red  night-cap  on,  with  a  tassel, 
and  he  was  lying  crumpled  up  into  a  sort  of 

untidy  heap,  and  snoring  loud "fit  to  snore 

his  head  off!"  as  Tweedledum  remarked. 

"I'm  afraid  he'll  catch  cold  with  lying  on 
the  damp  grass,"  said  Alice,  who  was  a  very 
thoughtful  little  girl. 

"He's  dreaming  now,"  said  Tweedledee: 
"and  what  do  you  think  he's  dreaming  about?" 

Alice  said,  "Nobody  can  guess  that." 

"Why,  about  you!"  Tweedledee  exclaimed, 
clapping  his  hands  triumphantly.  "And  if  he 
left  off  dreaming  about  you,  where  do  you 
suppose  you'd  be?" 

"Where  I  am  now,  of  course, "  said  Alice. 

"Not  you!"  Tweedledee  retorted  contemptu- 
ously. "You'd  be  nowhere.  Why,  you  re 
only  a  sort  of  thing  in  his  dream!" 

"If  that  there  King  was  to  wake, "  added 
Tweedledum,  "you'd  go  out — bang! — just  like 
a  candle!" 

"I  shouldn't!"  Alice  exclaimed  indignantly. 
"Besides,  if  I'm  only  a  sort  of  thing  in  his 
dream,  what  are  you,  I  should  like  to  know?" 

"Ditto,"  said  Tweedledum. 

"Ditto,  ditto!"  cried  Tweedledee. 

He  shouted  this  so  loud  that  Alice  couldn't 

5    Looking  Glass 


66  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

help  saying  "Hush!     You'll  be  waking   him, 
I'm  afraid,  if  you  make  so  much  noise." 

"Well,  it's  no  use  your  talking  about  waking 
him,"  said  Tweedledum,  "when  you're  only 
one  of  the  things  in  his  dream.  You  know 
very  well  you're  not  real." 

"I  am  real!"  said  Alice,  and  began  to  cry. 

"You  won't  make  yourself  a  bit  realler  by 
crying,"  Tweedledee  remarked:  "there's 
nothing  to  cry  about." 

"If  I  wasn't  real,"  Alice  said — half-laugh- 
ing through  her  tears,  it  all  seemed  so  ridicu- 
lous— "I  shouldn't  be  able  to  cry." 

"I  hope  you  don't  suppose  those  are  real 
tears?"  Tweedledum  interrupted  in  a  tone  of 
great  contempt. 

"I  know  they're  talking  nonsense,"  Alice 
thought  to  herself:  "and  it's  foolish  to  cry 
about  it. ' '  So  she  brushed  away  her  tears,  and 
went  on,  as  cheerfully  as  she  could,  "At  any 
rate  I'd  better  be  getting  out  of  the  wood,  for 
really  it's  coming  on  very  dark.  Do  you  think 
it's  going  to  rain?" 

Tweedledum  spread  a  large  umbrella  over 
himself  and  his  brother,  and  looked  up  into  it. 
"No,  I  don't  think  it  is,"  he  said:  "at  least — 
not  under  here.     Nohow." 

"But  it  may  rain  outside?" 

"It  may — if  it  chooses,"  said  Tweedledee: 
"we've  no  objection.      Contrariwise." 

"Selfish  things!"  thought  Alice,  and  she  was 
just  going  to  say  "Good-night"and  leave  them, 
when  Tweedledum  sprang  out  from  under  the 
umbrella,  and  seized  her  by  the  wrist. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


67 


"Do  you  see  that?"  he  said,  in  a  voice  chok- 
ing with  passion,  and  his  eyes  grew  large  and 
yellow  all  in  a  moment,  as  he  pointed  with  a 
trembling  finger  at  a  small  white  thing  lying 
under  the  tree. 

"It's  only  a  rattle,"  Alice  said,  after  a  care- 
ful examination  of  the  little  white  thing.  "Not 
a  rattle-snake,  you  know, ' '  she  added  hastily, 
thinking  that  he  was  frightened:  "only  an  old 
rattle — quite  old  and  broken." 


"I  knew  it  was!"  cried  Tweedledum,  begin- 
ning to  stamp  about  wildly  and  tear  his  hair. 
"It's  spoilt,  of  course!"  Here  he  looked  at 
Tweedledee,  who  immediately  sat  down  on 
the  ground,  and  tried  to  hide  himself  under 
the  umbrella. 

Alice  laid  her  hand  upon  his  arm,  and  said, 


68  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

in  a  soothing  tone,  "You  needn't  be  so  angry 
about  an  old  rattle." 

"But  it  isn't  old!"  Tweedledum  cried,  in  a 
greater  fury  than  ever.  "It's  new,  I  tell  you 
— I  bought  it  yesterday — my  nice  new  rattle!" 
and  his  voice  rose  to  a  perfect  scream. 

All  this  time  Tweedledee  was  trying  his  best 
to  fold  up  the  umbrella,  with  himself  in  it: 
which  was  such  an  extraordinary  thing  to  do, 
that  it  quite  took  off  Alice's  attention  from 
the  angry  brother.  But  he  couldn't  quite  suc- 
ceed, and  it  ended  in  his  rolling  over,  bundled 
up  in  the  umbrella,  with  only  his  head  out: 
and  there    he   lay,  opening   and   shutting    his 

mouth   and  his  large    eyes "looking  more 

like  a  fish  than  anything  else,"  Alice  thought. 

"Of  course  you  agree  to  have  a  battle?" 
Tweedledum  said  in  a  calmer  tone. 

"I  suppose  so,"  the  other  sulkily  replied,  as 
he  crawled  out  of  the  umbrella:  "only  she- 
must  help  us  to  dress  up,  you  know. " 

So  the  two  brothers  went  off  hand-in-hand 
into  the  wood,  and  returned  in  a  minute  with 
their  arms  full  of  things — such  as  bolsters, 
blankets,  hearth-rugs,  table-cloths,  dish-covers 
and  coal-scuttles.  "I  hope  you're  a  good 
hand  at  pinning  and  tying  strings?"  Tweedle- 
dum remarked.  "Every  one  of  these  things 
has  got  to  go  on,  somehow  or  other." 

Alice  said  afterwards  she  had  never  seen 
such  a  fuss  made  about  anything  in  all  her  life 
— the  way  those  two  bustled  about — and  the 
quantity  of  things  they  put  on — and  the  trouble 
they  gave  her  in  tying  strings  and  fastening 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


69 


buttons "Really  they'll  be  more  like  bun- 
dles of  old  clothes  than  anything  else,  by  the 
time  they're  ready!"  she  said  to  herself,  as  she 
arranged  a  bolster  round  the  neck  of  Tweedle- 
dee,  "to  keep  his  head  from  being  cut  off,"  as 
he  said. 

"You  know,"  he  added  very  gravely,  "it's 
one  of  the  most  serious  things  that  can  pos- 
sibly happen  to  one  in  a  battle — to  get  one's 
head  cut  off." 


Alice  laughed  loud:  but  she  managed  to  turn 
it  into  a  cough,  for  fear  of  hurting  his  feelings. 

"Do  I  look  very  pale?"  said  Tweedledum, 
coming  up  to  have  his  helmet  tied  on.  (He 
called  it  a  helmet,  though  it  certainly  looked 
much  more  like  a  saucepan.) 

"Well — yes— a  little,"  Alice  replied  gently. 


70  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"I'm  very  brave,  generally,"  he  went  on 
in  a  low  voice:  "only  to-day  I  happen  to  have 
a  headache." 

"And  I've  got  a  toothache!"  said  Tweedle- 
dee,  who  had  overheard  the  remark.  "I'm 
far  worse  than  you!" 

"Then  you'd  better  not  fight  to-day,"  said 
Alice,  thinking  it  a  good  opportunity  to  make 
peace. 

"We  must  have  a  bit  of  a  fight,  but  I  don't 
care  about  going  on  long, "  said  Tweedledum. 
"What's  the  time  now?" 

Tweedledee  looked  at  his  watch,  and  said, 
"Half-past  four. " 

"Let's  fight  till  six,  and  then  have  dinner," 
said  Tweedledum. 

"Very  well,"  the  other  said,  rather  sadly: 
"and  she  can  watch  us — only  you'd  better  not 
come  very  close,"  he  added:  "I  generally  hit 
everything  I  can  see — when  I  get  really  ex- 
cited. " 

"And  I  hit  everything  within  reach,"  cried 
Tweedledum,   "whether  I  can  see  it  or  not!" 

Alice  laughed.  "You  must  hit  the  trees 
pretty  often,  I  should  think,"  she  said. 

Tweedledum  looked  round  him  with  a  satis- 
fied smile.  "I  don't  suppose,"  he  said, 
"there'll  be  a  tree  left  standing,  for  ever  so  far 
round,  by  the  time  we've  finished!" 

"And  all  about  a  rattle!"  said  Alice,  still 
hoping  to  make  them  a  little  ashamed  of  fight- 
ing for  such  a  trifle. 

"I  shouldn't  have  minded  it  so  much,"  said 
Tweedledum,  "if  it  hadn't  been  a  new  one. " 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  71 

"I  wish  the  monstrous  crow  would  come!" 
thought  Alice. 

"There's  only  one  sword,  you  know," 
Tweedledum  said  to  his  brother:  "but  you 
can  have  the  umbrella — it's  quite  as  sharp. 
Only  we  must  begin  quick.  It's  getting  as 
dark  as  it  can." 

"And  darker,"  said  Tweedledee. 

It  was  getting  dark  so  suddenly  that  Alice 
thought  there  must  be  a  thunderstorm  coming 
on.  "What  a  thick  black  cloud  that  is!"  she 
said.  "And  how  fast  it  comes!  Why,  I  do 
believe  it's  got  wings!" 

"It's  the  crow!"  Tweedledum  cried  out  in 
a  shrill  voice  of  alarm ;  and  the  two  brothers 
took  to  their  heels  and  were  out  of  sight  in  a 
moment. 

Alice  ran  a  little  way  into  the  wood,  and 
stopped  under  a  large  tree.  "It  can  never  get 
at  me  here,"  she  thought:  "it's  far  too  large 
to  squeeze  itself  in  among  the  trees.  But  I 
wish  it  wouldn't  flap  its  wings  so — it  makes 
quite  a  hurricane  in  the  wood — here's  some- 
body's shawl  being  blown  away!" 


72  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


CHAPTER    V. 

WOOL    AND    WATER. 

She  caught  the  shawl  as  she  spoke,  and 
looked  about  for  the  owner:  in  another  mo- 
ment the  White  Queen  came  running  wildly 
through  the  wood,  with  both  arms  stretched 
out  wide,  as  if  she  were  flying,  and  Alice  ver)r 
civilly  went  to  meet  her  with  the  shawl. 

"I'm  very  glad  I  happened  to  be  in  the 
way,"  Alice  said,  as  she  helped  her  to  put  on 
her  shawl  again. 

The  White  Queen  only  looked  at  her  in  a 
helpless  frightened  sort  of  way,  and  kept  re- 
peating something  in  a  whisper  to  herself  that 
sounded  like  "Bread-and-butter,  bread-and- 
butter,"  and  Alice  felt  that  if  there  was  to  be 
any  conversation  at  all,  she  must  manage  it 
herself.  So  she  began  rather  timidly:  "Am  I 
addressing  the  White  Queen?" 

"Well,  yes,  if  you  call  that  a-dressing,"  the 
Queen  said.  "It  isn't  my  notion  of  the  thing, 
at  all. ' ' 

Alice  thought  it  would  never  do  to  have  an 
argument  at  the  very  beginning  of  their  con- 
versation, so  she  smiled  and  said,  "If  your 
Majesty  will  only  tell  me  the  right  way  to  be- 
gin, I'll  do  it  as  well  as  I  can.  " 

"But  I  don't  want  it  done  at  all!"  groaned 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


73 


the  poor  Queen.      "I've  been  a-dressing  my- 
self for  the  last  two  hours.  " 

It  would  have  been  all  the  better,  as  it 
seemed  to  Alice,  if  she  had  got  some  one  else 
to  dress    her,  she  was  so    dreadfully  untidy. 


"Every  single  thing's  crooked,"  Alice  thought 

to  herself,  "and   she's  all  over  pins! May 

I  put  your  shawl  straight  for  you?"  she  added 
aloud. 

"I  don't  know  what's  the  matter  with  it!" 


74  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

the  Queen  said,  in  a  melancholy  voice.  "It's 
out  of  temper,  I  think.  I've  pinned  it  here, 
and  I've  pinned  it  there,  but  there's  no  pleas- 
ing it!" 

"It  can't  go  straight,  you  know,  if  you  pin 
it  all  on  one  side,"  Alice  said,  as  she  gently 
put  it  right  for  her;  "and,  dear  me,  what  a 
state  your  hair  is  in!" 

"The  brush  has  got  entangled  in  it!"  the 
Queen  said  with  a  sigh.  "And  I  lost  the  comb 
yesterday." 

Alice  carefully  released  the  brush,  and  did 
her  best  to  get  the  hair  into  order.  "Come, 
you  look  rather  better  now!"  she  said,  after 
altering  most  of  the  pins.  "But  really  you 
should  have  a  lady's-maid!" 

"I'm  sure  I'll  take  you  with  pleasure!"  the 
Queen  said.  "Twopence  a  week,  and  jam 
every  other  day. " 

Alice  couldn't  help  laughing,  as  she  said,  "I 
don't  want  you  to  hire  me — and  I  don't  care 
for  jam." 

"It's  very  good  jam,"  said  the  Queen. 

"Well,  I  don't  want  any  to-day,  at  any  rate. " 

"You  couldn't  have  it  if  you  did  want  it," 
the  Queen  said.  "The  rule  is,  jam  to-morrow 
and  jam  yesterday — but  never  jam  to-day." 

"It  must  come  sometimes  to  'jam  to-day,'  " 
Alice  objected. 

"No,  it  can't,"  said  the  Queen.  "It's  jam 
every  other  day:  to-day  isn't  any  other  day, 
you  know. " 

"I  don't  understand  you,"  said  Alice.  "It's 
dreadfully  confusing!" 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  75 

"That's  the  effect  of  living  backwards,"  the 
Queen  said  kindly:  "it  always  makes  one  a  lit- 
tle giddy  at  first " 

"Living  backwards! "Alice  repeated  in  great 
astonishment.  "I  never  heard  of  such  a 
thing!" 

" — but  there's  one  great  advantage  in  it, 
that  one's  memory  works  both  ways." 

"I'm  sure  mine  only  works  one  way,"  Alice 
remarked.  "I  can't  remember  things  before 
they  happen. " 

"It's  a  poor  sort  of  memory  that  only  works 
backwards,"  the  Queen  remarked. 

"What  sort  of  things  do  you  remember 
best?"  Alice  ventured  to  ask. 

"Oh,,  things  that  happened  the  week  after 
next,"  the  Queen  replied  in  a  careless  tone. 
" For  instance,  now,"  she  went  on,  sticking  a 
large  piece  of  plaster  on  her  finger  as  she 
spoke,  "there's  the  King's  Messenger.  He's 
in  prison  now,  being  punished :  and  the  trial 
doesn't  even  begin  till  next  Wednesday :  and  of 
course  the  crime  comes  last  of  all." 

"Suppose  he  never  commits  the  crime?" 
said  Alice. 

"That  would  be  all  the  better,  wouldn't  it?" 
the  Queen  said,  as  she  bound  the  plaster  round 
her  finger  with  a  bit  of  ribbon. 

Alice  felt  there  was  no  denying  that.  "Of 
course  it  would  be  all  the  better,"  she  said: 
"but  it  wouldn't  be  all  the  better  his  being 
punished." 

"You're  wrong  there,  at  any  rate,"  said  the 
Queen.     "Were  you  ever  punished?" 


76  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"Only  for  faults,"  said  Alice. 

"And  you  were  all  the  better  for  it,  I 
know!"  the  Queen  said  triumphantly. 

"Yes,  but  then  I  had  done  the  things  I 
was  punished  for,"  said  Alice:  "that  makes 
all  the  difference." 

"But  if  you  hadn't  done  them,"  the  Queen 
said,  "that  would  have  been  better  still;  bet- 
ter, and  better,  and  better!"  Her  voice  went 
higher  with  each  "better,"  till  it  got  quite  to 
a  squeak  at  last. 

Alice  was  just  beginning  to  say,  "There's  a 

mistake  somewhere , "   when    the    Queen 

began  screaming,  so  loud  that  she  had  to  leave 
the  sentence  unfinished.  "Oh,  oh,  oh!" 
shouted  the  Queen,  shaking  her  hand  about  as 
if  she  wanted  to  shake  it  off.  "My  finger's 
bleeding!     Oh,  oh,  oh,  oh!" 

Her  screams  were  so  exactly  like  the  whistle 
of  a  steam-engine,  that  Alice  had  to  hold  both 
her  hands  over  her  ears. 

"What  is  the  matter?"  she  said,  as  soon  as 
there  was  a  chance  of  making  herself  heard. 
"Have  you  pricked  your  finger?" 

"I  haven't  pricked  it  yet,"  the  Queen  said, 
"but  I  soon  shall — oh,  oh,  oh!" 

"When  do  you  expect  to  do  it?"  Alice  asked, 
feeling  very  much  inclined  to  laugh. 

"When  I  fasten  my  shawl  again,"  the  poor 
Queen  groaned  out:  "the  brooch  will  come 
undone  directly.  Oh,  oh!"  As  she  said  the 
words  the  brooch  flew  open,  and  the  Queen 
clutched  wildly  at  it,  and  tried  to  clasp  it 
asain. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  77 

"Take  care!"  cried  Alice.  "You're  holding 
it  all  crooked!"  And  she  caught  at  the 
brooch;  but  it  was  too  late:  the  pin  had 
slipped,  and  the  Queen  had  pricked  her  finger. 

"That  accounts  for  the  bleeding,  you  see," 
she  said  to  Alice  with  a  smile.  "Now  you  un- 
derstand the  way  things  happen  here." 

"But  why  don't  you  scream  now?"  Alice 
asked,  holding  her  hands  ready  to  put  over  her 
ears  again. 

"Why,  I've  done  all  the  screaming  already," 
said  the  Queen.  "What  would  be  the  good  of 
having  it  all  over  again?" 

By  this  time  it  was  getting  light.  "The 
crow  must  have  flown  away,  I  think,"  said 
Alice:  "I'm  so  glad  it's  gone.  I  thought  it 
was  the  night  coming  on." 

"I  wish  I  could  manage  to  be  glad!"  the 
Queen  said.  "Only  I  never  can  remember  the 
rule.  You  must  be  very  happy,  living  in  this 
wood,  and  being  glad  whenever  you  like!" 

"Only  it  is  so  very  lonely  here!"  Alice  said 
in  a  melancholy  voice ;  and,  at  the  thought  of 
her  loneliness,  two  large  tears  came  rolling 
down  her  cheeks. 

"Oh,  don't  go  on  like  that!"  cried  the  poor 
Queen,  wringing  her  hands  in  despair.  "Con- 
sider what  a  great  girl  you  are.  Consider  what 
a  long  way  you've  come  to-day.  Consider  what 
o'clock  it  is.  Consider  anything,  only  don't 
cry!" 

Alice  could  not  help  laughing  at  this,  even 
in  the  midst  of  her  tears.  "Can  you  keep 
from  crying  by  considering  things?"  she  asked. 


78  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"That's  the  way  it's  done,"  the  Queen  said 
with  great  decision:  "nobody  can  do  two 
things  at  once,  you  know.  Let's  consider  your 
age  to  begin  with — how  old  are  you?" 

"I'm  seven  and  a  half,  exactly." 

"You  needn't  say  'exactually,  '  "  the  Queen 
remarked.  "I  can  believe  it  without  that. 
Now  I'll  give  you  something  to  believe.  I'm 
just  one  hundred  and  one,  five  months  and  a 
day." 

"I  can't  believe  that!"  said  Alice. 

"Can't  you?"  the  Queen  said  in  a  pitying 
tone.  "Try  again:  draw  a  long  breath,  and 
shut  your  eyes. ' ' 

Alice  laughed.  "There's  no  use  trying," 
she  said:  "one  can't  believe  impossible 
things. " 

"I  daresay  you  haven't  had  much  practice," 
said  the  Queen.  "When  I  was  your  age,  I 
always  did  it  for  half  an  hour  a  day.  Why, 
sometimes  I've  believed  as  many  as  six  impos- 
sible things  before  breakfast.  There  goes  the 
shawl  again!" 

The  brooch  had  come  undone  as  she 
spoke,  and  a  sudden  gust  of  wind  blew  the 
Queen's  shawl  across  a  little  brook.  The 
queen  spread  out  her  arms  again,  and  went 
flying  after  it,  and  this  time  she  succeeded  in 
catching  it  for  herself.  "I've  got  it!"  she 
cried  in  a  triumphant  tone.  "Now  you  shall 
see  me  pin  it  on  again,  all  by  myself!" 

"Then  I  hope  your  finger  is  better  now?" 
Alice  said  very  politely,  as  she  crossed  the 
little  brook  after  the  Queen. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  79 


"Oh,  much  better!"  cried  the  Queen,  her 
voice  rising  into  a  squeak  as  she  went  on. 
"Much  be-etter!  Be-e-e-etter!  Be-e-ehh!" 
The  last  word  ended  in  a  long  bleat,  so  like  a 
sheep  that  Alice  quite  started. 

She  looked  at  the  Queen,  who  seemed  to 
have  suddenly  wrapped  herself  up  in  wool. 
Alice  rubbed  her  eyes,  and  looked  again.  She 
couldn't  make  out  what  had  happened  at  all. 
Was  she  in  a  shop?  And  was  that  really — was 
it  really  a  sheep  that  was  sitting  on  the  other 
side  of  the  counter?  Rub  as  she  would,  she 
could  make  nothing  more  of  it :  she  was  in  a 
little  dark  shop,  leaning  with  her  elbows  on 
the  countei,  and  opposite  to  her  was  an  old 
Sheep,  sitting  in  an  arm-chair,  knitting,  and 
every  now  and  then  leaving  off  to  look  at  her 
through  a  great  pair  of  spectacles. 

"What  is  it  you  want  to  buy?"  the  Sheep 
said  at  last,  looking  up  for  a  moment  from  her 
knitting. 

"I  don't  quite  know  yet,"  Alice  said  very 
gently.  '  'I  should  like  to  look  around  me  first, 
if  I  might." 

"You  may  look  in  front  of  you,  and  on  both 
sides,  if  you  like,"  said  the  Sheep;  "but  you 
can't  look  all  round  you — unless  you've  got 
eyes  at  the  back  of  your  head. ' ' 

But  these,  as  it  happened,  Alice  had  not  got ; 
so  she  contented  herself  with  turning  round, 
looking  at  the  shelves  as  she  came  to  them. 


so 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


The  shop  seemed  to  be  full  of  all  manner  of 
curious  things — but  the  oddest  part  of  it  all 
was   that,    whenever  she  looked  hard  at  any 


shelf,  to  make  out  exactly  what  it  had  on  it, 
that  particular  shelf  was  always  quite  empty, 
though  the  others  round  it  were  crowded  as 
full  as  they  could  hold. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  81 

"Things  flow  about  so  here!"  she  said  at 
/ast  in  a  plaintive  tone,  after  she  had  spent  a 
minute  or  so  in  vainly  pursuing  a  large  bright 
thing,  that  looked  sometimes  like  a  doll  and 
sometimes  like  a  work-box,  and  was  always  in 
the  shelf  next  above  the  one  she  was  looking  at. 
"And  this  one  is  the  most  provoking  of  all — 
but  I'll  tell  you  what — "  she  added,  as  a  sud- 
den thought  struck  her.  "I'll  follow  it  up  to 
the  very  top  shelf  of  all.  It'll  puzzle  it  to  go 
through  the  ceiling,  I  expect!" 

But  even  this  plan  failed:  the  "thing"  went 
through  the  ceiling  as  quietly  as  possible,  as  if 
it  were  quite  used  to  it. 

"Are  you  a  child  or  a  teetotum?"  the  Sheep 
6aid,  as  she  took  up  another  pair  of  needles. 
"You'll  make  me  giddy  soon,  if  you  go  on 
turning  round  like  that."  She  was  now  work- 
ing with  fourteen  pairs  at  once,  and  Alice 
couldn't  help  looking  at  her  in  great  astonish- 
ment. 

"How  can  she  knit  with  so  many?"  the 
puzzled  child  thought  to  herself.  "She  gets 
more  and  more  like  a  porcupine  every  minute !" 

"Can  you  row?"  the  Sheep  asked,  handing 
her  a  pair  of  knitting-needles  as  she  spoke. 

"Yes,    a   little — but   not  on   land — and   not 

with  needles "  Alice  was  beginning  to  say, 

when  suddenly  the  needles  turned  into  oars  in 
her  hands,  and  she  found  they  were  in  a  little 
boat,  gliding  along  between  banks:  so  there 
was  nothing  for  it  but  to  do  her  best. 

"Feather!"  cried  the  Sheep,  as  she  took  up 
another  pair  of  needles. 

6   Looking  Glass 


82  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

This  didn't  sound  like  a  remark  that  needed 
any  answer:  so  Alice  said  nothing,  but  pulled 
away.  There  was  something  very  queer  about 
the  water,  she  thought,  as  every  now  and  then 
the  oars  got  fast  in  it,  and  would  hardly  come 
out  again. 

"Feather!  Feather!"  the  Sheep  cried  again, 
taking  more  needles.  "You'll  be  catching  a 
crab  directly. " 

"A  dear  little  crab!"  thought  Alice.  "I 
should  like  that. " 

"Didn't  you  hear  me  say  'Feather'?"  the 
Sheep  cried  angrily,  taking  up  quite  a  bunch 
of  needles. 

"Indeed  I  did,"  said  Alice:  "you've  said  it 
very  often — and  very  loud.  Please  where  are 
the  crabs?" 

"In  the  water,  of  course!"  said  the  Sheep, 
sticking  some  of  the  needles  into  her  hair,  as 
her  hands  were  full.      "Feather,  I  say!" 

"Why  do  you  say  'Feather'  so  often?"  Alice 
asked  at  last,  rather  vexed.  "I'm  not  a 
bird!" 

"You  are,"  said  the  Sheep:  "you're  a  little 
goose. " 

This  offended  Alice  a  little,  so  there  was  no 
more  conversation  for  a  minute  or  two,  while 
the  boat  glided  gently  on,  sometimes  among 
beds  of  weeds  (which  made  the  oars  stick  fast 
in  the  water,  worse  than  ever),  and  sometimes 
under  trees,  but  always  with  the  same  tall 
river-banks  frowning  over  their  heads. 

"Oh,  please!  There  are  some  scented 
rushes!"  Alice    cried    in    a  sudden    transport 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  83 

of  delight.  "There  really  are — and  such 
beauties!" 

"You  needn't  say  'please'  to  me  about  'em," 
the  Sheep  said,  without  looking  up  from  her 
knitting:  "I  didn't  put  'em  there,  and  I'm  not 
going  to  take  'em  away.  " 

"No,  but  I  meant — please,  may  we  wait  and 
pick  some?"  Alice  pleaded.  "If  you  don't 
mind  stopping  the  boat  for  a  minute. " 

"How  am  I  to  stop  it?"  said  the  Sheep.  "If 
you  leave  off  rowing,  it'll  stop  of  itself." 

So  the  boat  was  left  to  drift  down  the 
stream  as  it  would,  till  it  glided  gently 
in  among  the  waving  rushes.  And  then 
the  little  sleeves  were  carefully  rolled 
up,  and  the  little  arms  were  plunged 
in  elbow-deep,  to  get  hold  of  the  rushes 
a  good  long  way  down  before  breaking 
them  off — and  for  a  while  Alice  forgot  all  about 
the  Sheep  and  the  knitting,  as  she  bent  over 
the  side  of  the  boat,  with  just  the  ends  of  her 
tangled  hair  dripping  into  the  water — while 
with  bright  eager  eyes  she  caught  at  one  bunch 
after  another  of  the  darling  scented  rushes. 

"I  only  hope  the  boat  won't  tipple  over!"  she 
said  to  herself.  "Oh,  what  a  lovely  one! 
Only  I  couldn't  quite  reach  it."  And  it  cer- 
tainly did  seem  a  little  provoking  ("almost  as 
if  it  happened  on  purpose,"  she  thought)  that, 
though  she  managed  to  pick  plenty  of  beauti- 
ful rushes  as  the  boat  glided  by,  there  was 
always  a  more  lovely  one  that  she  couldn't 
reach. 

"The  prettiest  are  always  further!"  she  said 


84  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

at  last,  with  a  sigh  at  the  obstinacy  of  the 
rushes  in  growing  so  far  off,  with  flushed 
cheeks  and  dripping  hair  and  hands,  she 
scrambled  back  into  her  place,  and  began  to 
arrange  her  new-found  treasures. 

What  mattered  it  to  her  just  then  that  the 
rushes  had  begun  to  fade,  and  to  lose  all  their 
scent  and  beauty,  from  the  very  moment  that 
she  picked  them?  Even  real  scented  rushes, 
you  know,  last  only  a  very  little  while — and 
these,  being  dream-rushes,  melted  away  almost 
like  snow,  as  they  lay  in  heaps  at  her  feet — but 
Alice  hardly  noticed  this,  there  were  so  many 
other  curious  things  to  think  about. 

They  hadn't  gone  much  farther  before  the 
blade  of  one  of  the  oars  got  fast  in  the  water 
and  wouldn't  come  out  again  (so  Alice 
explained  it  afterwards),  and  the  consequence 
was  that  the  handle  of  it  caught  her  under  the 
chin,  and,  in  spite  of  a  series  of  little  shrieks 
of  "Oh,  oh,  oh!"  from  poor  Alice,  it  swept  her 
straight  off  the  seat,  and  down  among  the  heap 
of  rushes. 

However,  she  wasn't  a  bit  hurt,  and  was 
soon  up  again:  the  Sheep  went  on  with  her 
knitting  all  the  while,  just  as  if  nothing  had 
happened.  "That  was  a  nice  crab  you 
caught!"  she  remarked,  as  Alice  got  back  into 
her  place,  very  much  relieved  to  find  herself 
still  in  the  boat. 

"Was  it?  I  didn't  see  it,"  said  Alice,  peep- 
ing cautiously  over  the  side  of  the  boat  into 
the  dark  water.  "1  wish  it  hadn't  let  go — I 
should  so  like  a  little  crab  to  take  home  with 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


85 


me!"     But  the  Sheep  only  laughed  scornfully, 
and  went  on  with  her  knitting.. 

"Are  there  many  crabs  here?"  said  Alice. 


"  Crabs,  and  all  sorts  of  things, "  said  the 
Sheep:  "plenty  of  choice,  only  make  up  your 
mind      Now,  what  do  you  want  to  buy?" 

"To  buy!"  Alice  echoed  in  a  tone  that  was 


86  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

half  astonished  and  half  frightened — for  the 
oars,  and  the  boat,  and  the  river,  had  vanished 
all  in  a  moment,  and  she  was  back  again  in  the 
little  dark  shop. 

"I  should  like  to  buy  an  egg,  please,"  she 
said  timidly.     "How  do  you  sell  them?" 

"Fivepence  farthing  for  one — twopence  for 
two,"  the  Sheep  replied. 

"Then  two  are  cheaper  than  one?"  Alice  said 
in  a  surprised  tone,  taking  out  her  purse. 

"Only  )^ou  must  eat  them  both,  if  you  buy 
two,"  said  the  Sheep. 

"Then  I'll  have  one,  please,"  said  Alice,  as 
she  put  the  money  down  on  the  counter.  For 
she  thought  to  herself,  "They  mightn't  be  at 
all  nice,  you  know." 

The  Sheep  took  the  money,  and  put  it  away 
in  a  box:  then  she  said  "I  never  put  things 
into  people's  hands — that  would  never  do — you 
must  get  it  for  yourself."  And  so  saying,  she 
went  off  to  the  other  end  of  the  shop,  and  set 
the  egg  upright  on  a  shelf. 

"I  wonder  why  it  wouldn't  do?"  thought 
Alice,  as  she  groped  her  way  among  the  tables 
and  chairs,  for  the  shop  was  very  dark  towards 
the  end.  "The  egg  seems  to  get  further  away 
the  more  I  walk  towards  it.  Let  me  see,  is 
this  a  chair?  Why,  it's  got  branches,  I  declare ! 
How  very  odd  to  find  trees  growing  here! 
And  actually  here's  a  little  brook !  Well,  this 
is  the  very  queerest  shop  I  ever  saw!" 

****** 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  87 

So  she  went  on,  wondering  more  and  more 
at  every  step,  as  everything  turned  into  a  tree 
the  moment  she  came  up  to  it,  and  she  quite 
expected  the  egg  to  do  the  same. 


88  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

HUMPTY    DUMPTY. 

However,  the  egg  only  got  larger  and  larger, 
and  more  and  more  human:  when  she  had 
come  within  a  few  yards  of  it,  she  saw  that  it 
had  eyes  and  a  nose  and  mouth ;  and,  when 
she  had  come  close  to  it,  she  saw  clearly  that 
it  was  HUMPTY  DUMPTY  himself.  "It  can't 
be  anybody  else!"  she  said  to  herself.  "I'm 
as  certain  of  it,  as  if  his  name  were  written  all 
over  his  face!" 

It  might  have  been  written  a  hundred  times, 
easily,  on  that  enormous  face.  Humpty 
Dumpty  was  sitting,  with  his  legs  crossed  like 
a  Turk,  on  the  top  of  a  high  wall — such  a  nar- 
row one  that  Alice  quite  wondered  how  he 
could  keep  his  balance — and,  as  his  eyes  were 
steadily  fixed  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  he 
didn't  take  the  least  notice  of  her,  she  thought 
he  must  be  a  stuffed  figure,  after  all. 

"And  how  exactly  like  an  egg  he  is!"  she 
said  aloud,  standing  with  her  hands  ready  to 
catch  him,  for  she  was  every  moment  expecting 
him  to  fall. 

"It's  very  provoking,"  Humpty  Dumpty 
said  after  a  long  silence,  looking  away  from 
Alice  as  he  spoke,  "to  be  called  an  egg — very!" 

"I  said  you  looked  like  an  egg,  Sir,"  Alice 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  89 

gently  explained.  "And  some  eggs  are  very 
pretty,  you  know,"  she  added,  hoping  to  turn 
her  remark  into  a  sort  of  compliment. 

"Some  people,"  said  Humjpty  Dumpty,  look- 
ing away  from  her  as  usual,  "have  no  more 
sense  than  a  baby!" 

Alice  didn't  know  what  to  say  to  this:  it 
wasn't  at  all  like  conversation,  she  thought, 
as  he  never  said  anything  to  her;  in  fact,  his 
last  remark  was  evidently  addressed  to  a  tree 
— so  she  stood  and  softly  repeated  to  herself: — 

"Humphy  Dumpty  sat  on  a  wall: 
Humpty  Dumpty  had  a  great  fall. 
All  the   King's  horses  and  all  the  King's  men 
Couldn't   put  Humpty  Dumpty   in   his   place 
again. ' ' 

"That  last  line  is  much  too  long  for  the 
poetry,"  she  added,  almost  out  loud,  forget- 
ting that  Humpty  Dumpty  would  hear  her. 

"Don't  stand  chattering  to  yourself  like 
that,"  Humpty  Dumpty  said,  looking  at  her 
for  the  first  time,  "but  tell  me  your  name  and 
your  business. " 

"My  name  is  Alice,  but " 

"It's  a  stupid  name  enough!"  Humpty 
Dumpty  interrupted  impatiently.  "What  does 
it  mean?" 

"Must  a  name  mean  something?"  Alice 
asked  doubtfully. 

"Of  course  it  must,"  Humpty  Dumpty  said 
with  a  short  laugh :  my  name  means  the  shape 
I  am  and  a  good  handsome  shape  it  is,  too. 


90  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

With  a  name  like  yours,  you  might  be  any 
shape,  almost. ' ' 

"Why  do  you  sit  out  here  all  alone?"  said 
Alice,  not  wishing  to  begin  an  argument. 

"Why,  because  there's  nobody  with  me!" 
cried  Humpty  Dumpty.  "Did  you  think  I 
didn't  know  the  answer  to  that?  Ask 
another. " 

"Don't  you  think  you'd  be  safer  down  on 
the  ground?"  Alice  went  on,  not  with  any  idea 
of  making  another  riddle,  but  simply  in  her 
good-natured  anxiety  for  the  queer  creature. 
"That  wall  is  so  very  narrow!" 

"What  tremendously  easy  riddles  you  ask!" 
Humpty  Dumpty  growled  out.  "Of  course  I 
don't  think  so!      Why,  if  ever  I  did  fall  off — 

which  there's  no  chance  of — but  if  I  did " 

Here  he  pursed  up  his  lips,  and  looked  so 
solemn  and  grand  that  Alice  could  hardly  help 
laughing.  "If  I  did  fall,"  he  went  on,  "the 
King  has  promised  me — ah,  you  may  turn  pale, 
if  you  like!  You  didn't  think  I  was  going  to 
say  that,  did  you?  The  King  has  promised 
me — with  his  very  own  mouth — to — to — " 

"To  send  all  his  horses  and  all  his  men," 
Alice  interrupted,  rather  unwisely. 

"Now  I  declare  that's  too  bad!"  Humpty 
Dumpty  cried,  breaking  into  a  sudden  passion. 
"You've  been  listening  at  doors — and  behind 
trees — and  down  chimneys — or  you  couldn't 
have  known  it!" 

"I  haven't,  indeed!"  Alice  said  very  gently. 
"It's  in  a  book.  " 

"Ah,   well!     They    may   write  such  things 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


91 


in  a  book,"  Humpty 
Dumpty  said  in  a  calm- 
er tone.  "That's  what 
you  call  a  History  of 
England,  that  is.  Now, 
take  a  good  look  at  me ! 
I'm  one  that  has  spoken 
to  a  King,  I  am :  may 
hap  you'll  never  see 
such  another:  and,  to 
show  youl'mnot  proud, 
you  may  shake  hands 
with  me!"  And  he  grinned  almost  from  ear 
to  ear,  as  he  leant  forwards  (and  as  nearly  as 
possible  fell  off  the  wall  in  doing  so)  and  offered 
Alice  his  hand.  She  watched  him  a  little 
anxiously  as  she  took  it.  "If  he  smiled  much 
more  the  ends  of  his  mouth  might  meet  be- 
hind,"  she  thought:  "and  then  I  don't  know 
what  would  happen  to  his  head!  I'm  afraid  it 
would  come  off!" 


92  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"Yes,  all  his  horses  and  all  his  men," 
Humpty  Dumpty  went  on.  "They'd  pick  me 
up  again  in  a  minute,  they  would!  However, 
this  conversation  is  going  on  a  little  too  fast: 
let's  go  back  to  the  last  remark  but  one. " 

"I'm  afraid   I  can't  quite    remember   it," 
Alice  said,  very  politely. 

"In  that  case  we  start  afresh,"  said  Humpty 
Dumpty,  "and  it's  my  turn  to  choose  a  sub- 
ject  "  ("He  talks  about  it  just  as  if  it  was 

a  game!"  thought  Alice.)     "So  here's  a  ques- 
tion for  you.    How  old  did  you  say  you  were?" 

Alice  made  a  short  calculation,  and  said 
"Seven  years  and  six  months." 

"Wrong!"  Humpty  Dumpty  exclaimed  tri- 
umphantly.     "You  never  said  a  word  like  it!" 

"I  thought  you  meant  'How  old  are  you?'  " 
Alice  explained. 

"If  I'd  meant  that,  I'd  have  said  it,"  said 
Humpty  Dumpty. 

Alice  didn't  want  to  begin  another  argu- 
ment, so  she  said  nothing. 

"Seven  years  and  six  months!"  Humpty 
Dumpty  repeated  thoughtfully.  "An  uncom- 
fortable sort  of  age.     Now  if  you'd  asked  my 

advice,  I'd  have  said  'Leave  off  at  seven' 

but  it's  too  late  now." 

"I  never  ask  advice  about  growing,"  Alice 
said  indignantly. 

"Too  proud!"  the  other  enquired. 

Alice  felt  even  more  indignant  at  this  sug- 
gestion. "I  mean,"  she  said,  "that  one  can't 
help  growing  older." 

"One      can't,      perhaps,"      said      Humpty 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  93 

Dumpty;  "but  two  can.  With  proper  assist- 
ance, you  might  have  left  off  at  seven.  " 

"What  a  beautiful  belt  you've  got  on!"  Alice 
suddenly  remarked.  (They  had  had  quite 
enough  of  the  subject  of  age,  she  thought: 
and,  if  they  really  were  to  take  turns  in 
choosing  subjects,  it  was  her  turn  now.)  "At 
least,"  she  corrected  herself  on  second 
thoughts,  "a  beautiful  cravat,  I  should  have 
said — no,  a  belt,  I  mean — I  beg  your  pardon!" 
she  added  in  dismay,  for  Humpty  Dumpty 
looked  thoroughly  offended,  and  she  began  to 
wish  she  hadn't  chosen  that  subject.  "If  only 
I  knew,"  she  thought  to  herself,  "which  was 
neck  and  which  was  waist!" 

Evidently  Humpty  Dumpty  was  very  angry, 
though  he  said  nothing  for  a  minute  or  two. 
When  he  did  speak  again,  it  was  in  a  deep 
growl. ' 

"It  is  a — most — provoking — thing,"  he  said 
at  last,  "when  a  person  doesn't  know  a  cravat 
from  a  belt!" 

"I  know  it's  very  ignorant  of  me,"  Alice 
said,  in  so  humble  a  tone  that  Humpty  Dumpty 
relented. 

"It's  a  cravat,  child,  and  a  beautiful  one,  as 
you  say.  It's  a  present  from  the  White  King 
and  Queen.     There  now!" 

"Is  it  really?"  said  Alice, quite  pleased  to  find 
that  she  had  chosen  a  good  subject,  after  all. 

"They  gave  it  me,"  Humpty  Dumpty  con- 
tinued thoughtfully,  as  he  crossed  one  knee 
over  the  other  and  clasped  his  hands  round  it, 


94  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"  they  gave  it  me — for  an  un-birthday  pres- 
ent." 

"I  beg  your  pardon?"  Alice  said  with  a  puz- 
zled air. 

"I'm  not  offended,"  said  Humpty  Dumpty. 

"I  mean,  what  is  an  un-birthday  present?" 

"A  present  given  when  it  isn't  your  birth- 
day, of  course. ' ' 

Alice  considered  a  little.  "I  like  birthday 
presents  best,"  she  said  at  last. 

"You  don't  know  what  you're  talking 
about!"  cried  Humpty  Dumpty.  "How  many 
days  are  there  in  a  year?" 

"Three  hundred  and  sixty-five,"  said  Alice. 

"And  how  many  birthdays  have  you?" 

"One." 

"And  if  you  take  one  from  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five,  what  remains?" 

"Three  hundred  and  sixty-four,  of  course." 

Humpty  Dumpty  looked  doubtful.  "I'd 
rather  see  that  done  on  paper,"  he  said. 

Alice  couldn't  help  smiling  as  she  took  out 
her  memorandum  book,  and  worked  the  sum 
for  him : 

365 
1 


364 

Humpty  Dumpty  took  the  book,  and  looked 
at  it  carefully.  "That  seems  to  be  done  right 
"  he  began. 

"You're  holding  it  upside  down!"  Alice 
interrupted. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  95 

"To  be  sure  I  was!"  Humpty  Dumpty  said 
gaily,  as  she  turned  it  round  for  him.  "I 
thought  it  looked  a  little  queer.  As  I  was  say- 
ing, that  seems  to  be  done  right — though  I 
haven't  time  to  look  it  over  thoroughly  just 
now — and  that  shows  that  there  are  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-four  days  when  you  might  get 
un-birthday  presents " 

"Certainly,"  said  Alice. 

"And  only  one  for  birthday  presents,  you 
know.     There's  glory  for  you!" 

"I  don't  know  what  you  mean  by  'glory,'  " 
Alice  said. 

Humpty  Dumpty  smiled  contemptuously. 
"Of  course  you  don't — till  I  tell  you.  I  meant 
'there's  a  nice  knock-down  argument  for 
you!'  " 

"But  'glory'  doesn't  mean  'a  nice  knock- 
down argument,'  "  Alice  objected. 

"When  I  use  a  word,"  Humpty  Dumpty 
said,  in  rather  a  scornful  tone,  "it  means  just 
what  I  choose  it  to  mean — neither  more  nor 
less." 

"The  question  is,"  said  Alice,  "whether  you 
can  make  words  mean  so  many  different 
things." 

"The  question  is,"  said  Humpty  Dumpty, 
"which  is  to  be  master that's  all." 

Alice  was  too  much  puzzled  to  say  anything; 
so  after  a  minute  Humpty  Dumpty  began 
again.  "They've  a  temper,  some  of  them — 
particularly  verbs:  they're  the  proudest — 
adjectives  you  can  do  anything  with,  but  not 
verbs — however,  I  can  manage  the  whole  lot 


96  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

of  them!  Impenetrability!  That's  what  I 
say ! ' ' 

"Would  you  tell  me,  please,"  said  Alice, 
"what  that  means?" 

"Now you  talk  like  a  reasonable  child,"  said 
Humpty  Dumpty,  looking  very  much  pleased. 
"I  meant  by 'impenetrability'  that  we've  had 
enough  of  that  subject,  and  it  would  be  just  as 
well  if  you'd  mention  what  you  mean  to  do 
next,  as  I  suppose  you  don't  mean  to  stop  here 
all  the  rest  of  your  life. " 

"That's  a  great  deal  to  make  one  word 
mean,"  Alice  said  in  a  thoughtful  tone. 

"When  I  make  a  word  do  a  lot  of  work  like 
that,"  said  Humpty  Dumpty,  "I  always  pay  it 
extra. " 

"Oh!"  said  Alice.  She  was  too  much  puz- 
zled to  make  any  other  remark. 

"Ah,  you  should  see  'em  come  round  me  of 
a  Saturday  night,"  Humpty  Dumpty  went  on, 
wagging  his  head  gravely  from  side  to  side, 
"for  to  get  their  wages,  you  know." 

(Alice  didn't  venture  to  ask  what  he  paid 
them  with ;  and  so  you  see  I  can't  tell  you.) 

"You  seem  very  clever  at  explaining  words, 
Sir,"  said  Alice.  "'Would  you  kindly  tell  me 
the  meaning  of  the  poem  called  'Jabber- 
wocky'?" 

"Let's  hear  it,"  said  Humpty  Dumpty.  "I 
can  explain  all  the  poems  that  ever  were  in- 
vented— and  a  good  many  that  haven't  been 
invented  just  yet." 

This  sounded  very  hopeful,  so  Alice  repeated 
the  first  verse : — 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  97 

"  'Twas  brillig,  and  the  slithy  toves 

Did  gyre  and  gimble  in  the  wabe: 
All  mimsy  were  the  borogoves, 
And  the  mome  raths  outgrabe. ' ' 

"That's  enough  to  begin  with,"  Humpty 
Dumpty  interrupted:  "there  are  plenty  of 
hard  words  there.  'Brillig'  means  four  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon — the  time  when  you  begin 
broiling  things  for  dinner. " 

"That'll  do  very  well,"  said  Alice:  "and 
'slithy'?" 

"Well,  'slithy'  means  'lithe  and  slimy.' 
'Lithe' is  the  same  as  'active.'  You  see  it's 
like  a  portmanteau — there  are  two  meanings 
packed  up  into  one  word. ' ' 

' '  I  see  it  now, ' '  Alice  remarked  thoughtfully : 
"and  what  are  'toves'?" 

"Well,  'toves'  are  something  like  badgers — 
they're  something  like  lizards — and  they're 
something  like  corkscrews." 

"They  must  be  very  curious-looking  crea- 
tures. ' ' 

"They  are  that,"  said  Humpty  Dumpty: 
"also  they  make  their  nests  under  sun-dials — 
also  they  live  on  cheese." 

"And  what's  to  'gyre'  and  to  'gimble'?" 

"To  'gyre'  is  to  go  round  and  round  like  a 
gyroscope.  To  'gimble'  is  to  make  holes  like 
a  gimblet. " 

"And  'the  wabe'  is  the  grass-plot  round  a 
sun-dial,  I  suppose?"  said  Alice,  surprised  at 
her  own  ingenuity. 

"Of   course  it  is.     It's  called  'wabe,'  you 

7    Looking  Glass 


98 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


know,  because  it  goes  a  long  way  before  it,  and 

a  long  way  behind  it " 

"And  a  long  way  beyond  it   on   each   side," 
Alice  added. 


"Exactly  so.  Well  then,  'mimsy'  is  'flimsy 
and  miserable'  (there's  another  portmanteau 
for  you).      And  a  'borogove'  is  a  thin  shabby- 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  99 

looking  bird  with  its  feathers  sticking  out  all 
round — something  like  a  live  mop. ' ' 

"And  then  'mome  raths'?"  said  Alice.  "I'm 
afraid  I'm  giving  you  a  great  deal  of  trouble. " 

"Well,  a  'rath'  is  a  sort  of  green  pig:  but 
'mome'  I'm  not  certain  about.  I  think  it's 
short  for  'from  home' — meaning  that  they'd 
lost  their  way,  you  know." 

"And  what  does  'outgrabe'  mean?" 

"Well,  'outgribing'  is  something  between 
bellowing  and  whistling,  with  a  kind  of  sneeze 
in  the  middle:  however,  you'll  hear  it  done, 
maybe — down  in  the  wood  yonder — and,  when 
you've  once  heard  it,  you'll  be  quite  content. 
Who's  been  repeating  all  that  hard  stuff  to 
you?" 

"I  read  it  in  a  book,"  said  Alice.  "But  I 
had  some  poetry  repeated  to  me  much  easier 
than  that,  by — Tweedledee,  I  think  it  was." 

"As  to  poetry,  you  know,"  said  Humpty 
Dumpty,  stretching  out  one  of  his  great  hands, 
"I  can  repeat  poetry  as  well  as  other  folk,  if 
it  comes  to  that " 

"Oh,  it  needn't  coma  to  that!"  Alice  hastily 
said,  hoping  to  keep  him  from  beginning. 

"The  piece  I'm  going  to  repeat,"  he  went  on 
without  noticing  her  remark,  "was  written 
entirely  for  your  amusement." 

Alice  felt  that  in  that  case  she  really  ought 
to  listen  to  it;  so  she  sat  down,  and  said 
"Thank  you"  rather  sadly. 

"In  winter,   when  the  fields  are  white, 
I  sing  this  song  for  your  delight 


100         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

only  I  don't  sing  it,"  he  added,  as  an  expla- 
nation. 

"I  see  you  don't,"  said  Alice. 

"If  you  can  see  whether  I'm  singing  or  not, 
you've  sharper  eyes  than  most,"  Humpty 
Dumpty  remarked  severely.      Alice  was  silent. 

"In  spring,  when  woods  are  getting  green, 
I'll  try  and  tell  you  what  I  mean:" 

"Thank  you  very  much,"  said  Alice. 

"In  summer,  when  the  days  are  long, 
Perhaps  you'll  understand  the  song: 

In  autumn,  when  the  leaves  are  brown, 
Take  pen  and  ink,  and  write  it  down. " 

"I  will,  if  I  can  remember  it  so  long,"  said 
Alice. 

"You  needn't  go  on  making  remarks  like 
that,"  Humpty  Dumpty  said:  "they're  not 
sensible,  and  they  put  me  out. " 

"I  sent  a  message  to  the  fish: 
I  told  them  'This  is  what  I  wish.' 

The  little  fishes  of  the  sea, 
They  sent  an  answer  back  to  me. 

The  little  fishes'  answer  was 

'We  cannot  do  it,  Sir,  because '  " 

"I'm  afraid  I  don't  quite  understand,"  said 
Alice. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         101 

' '  It  gets  easier  further  on, ' '  Humpty  Dumpty 
replied. 

"I  sent  to  them  again  to  say 
4  It  will  be  better  to  obey. ' 

The  fishes  answered,  with  a  grin, 
'Why,  what  a  temper  you  are  in!' 

I  told  them  once,  I  told  them  twice : 
They  would  not  listen  to  advice. 

I  took  a  kettle  large  and  new, 
Fit  for  the  deed  I  had  to  do. 

My  heart  went  hop,  my  heart  went  thump: 
I  filled  the  kettle  at  the  pump. 

Then  some  one  came  to  me  and  said 
'The  little  fishes  are  in  bed.' 

I  said  to  him,  I  said  it  plain, 

'Then  you  must  wake  them  up  again. ' 

I  said  it  very  loud  and  clear : 
I  went  and  shouted  in  his  ear. " 

Humpty  Dumpty  raised  his  voice  almost  to 
a  scream  as  he  repeated  this  verse,  and  Alice 
thought,  with  a  shudder,  "I  wouldn't  have 
been  the  messenger  for  anything!" 

"But  he  was  very  stiff  and  proud: 
He  said  'You  needn't  shout  so  loud!' 


102        THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

And  he  was  very  proud  and  stiff: 

He  said  'I'd  eo  and  wake  them,  if 


I  took  a -corkscrew  from  the  shelf: 
I  went  to  wake  them  up  myself. 

And  when  I  found  the  door  was  locked, 

I  pulled  and  pushed  and  kicked  and  knocked. 

And  when  I  found  the  door  was  shut, 
I  tried  to  turn  the  handle,  but " 

There  was  a  long  pause. 

"Is  that  all?"  Alice  timidly  asked. 

"That's  all,"  said  Humpty  Dumpty.  "Good 
bye. " 

This  was  rather  sudden.  Alice  thought:  but, 
after  such  a  very  strong  hint  that  she  ought  to 
be  going,  she  felt  that  it  would  hardly  be  civil 
to  stay.  So  she  got  up,  and  held  out  her  hand. 
"Goodbye,  till  we  meet  again!"  she  said  as 
cheerfully  as  she  could. 

"I  shouldn't  know  you  again  if  we  did  meet," 
Humpty  Dumpty  replied  in  a  discontented 
tone,  giving  her  one  of  his  fingers  to  shake: 
"you're  so  exactly  like  other  people." 

"The  face  is  what  one  goes  by,  generally," 
Alice  remarked  in  a  thoughtful  tone. 

"That's  just  what  I  complain  of,"  said 
Humpty  Dumpty.  "Your  face  is  the  same  as 
everybody  has — the  two  eyes,  so "  (mark- 
ing their  places  in  the  air  with  his  thumb) 
"nose  in  the  middle,  mouth  under.  It's 
always  the  same.      Now    if   you   had    the   two 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.        103 

eyes  on  the  same  side  of  the  nose,  for  instance 
— or  the  mouth  at  the  top — that  would  be  some 
help. ' ' 

"It  wouldn't  look  nice,  "  Alice  objected. 
But  Humpty  Dumpty  only  shut  his  eyes,  and 
said  "Wait  till  you've  tried."  *%, 

Alice  waited  a  minute  to  see  if  he  would 
speak  again,  but,  as  he  never  opened  his  eyes 
or  took  any  further  notice  of  her,  she  said 
"Good-bye!"  once  more,  and,  getting  no 
answer  to  this,  she  quietly  walked  away:  but 
she  couldn't  help   saying    to    herself,    as   she 

went,    "Of   all    the    unsatisfactory "    (she 

repeated  this  aloud,  as  it  was  a  great  comfort 
to  have  such  a  long  word  to  say)  "of  all  the 

unsatisfactory   people   I   ever   met "     She 

never  finished  the  sentence,  for  at  this  mo- 
ment a  heavy  crash  shook  the  forest  from  end 
to  end. 


104         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    LION    AND    THE    UNICORN. 

The  next  moment  soldiers  came  running 
through  the  wood,  at  first  in  twos  and  threes, 
then  ten  or  twenty  together,  and  at  last  in 
such  crowds  that  they  seemed  to  fill  the  whole 
forest.  Alice  got  behind  a  tree,  for  fear  of 
being  run  over,  and  watched  them  go  by. 

She  thought  that  in  all  her  life  she  had 
never  seen  soldiers  so  uncertain  on  their  feet: 
they  were  always  tripping  over  something  or 
other,  and  whenever  one  went  down,  several 
more  always  fell  over  him,  so  that  the  ground 
was  soon  covered  with  little  heaps  of  men. 

Then  came  the  horses.  Having  four  feet, 
these  managed  rather  better  than  the  foot- 
soldiers;  but  even  they  stumbled  now  and 
then;  and  it  seemed  to  be  a  regular  rule  that, 
whenever  a  horse  stumbled,  the  rider  fell  off 
instantly.  The  confusion  got  worse  every 
moment,  and  Alice  was  very  glad  to  get  out 
of  the  wood  into  an  open  place,  where  she 
found  the  White  King,  seated  on  the  ground, 
busily  writing  in  his  memorandum-book. 

"I've  sent  them  all!"  the  King  cried  in  a 
tone  of  delight,  on  seeing  Alice.  "Did  you 
happen  to  meet  any  soldiers,  my  dear,  as  you 
came  through  the  wood?" 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         105 


"Yes,  I  did,"  said  Alice;  "several  thou- 
sand, I  should  think." 

"Four  thousand  two  hundred  and  seven, 
that's  the  exact  number,"  the  King- said,  re- 


ferring to  his  book.  "I  couldn't  send  all  the 
horses,  you  know,  because  two  of  them  are 
wanted  in  the  game.     And  I  haven't  sent  the 


106         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

two  Messengers,  either.  They're  both  gone 
to  the  town.  Just  look  along  the  road,  and 
tell  me  if  you  can  see  either  of  them." 

"I  see  nobody  on  the  road,"  said  Alice. 

"I  only  wish  I  had  such  eyes,"  the  King  re- 
marked, in  a  fretful  tone.  "To  be  able  to  see 
Nobody!  And  at  that  distance,  too!  Why,  it's 
as  much  as  I  can  do  to  see  real  people,  by  this 
light!" 

All  this  was  lost  on  Alice,  who  was  still  look- 
ing intently  along  the  road,  shading  her  eyes 
with  one  hand.  "I  see  somebody  now!"  she 
exclaimed  at  last.  "But  he's  coming  very 
slowly — and  what  curious  attitudes  he  goes 
into!"  (For  the  Messenger  kept  skipping  up 
and  down,  and  wriggling  like  an  eel,  as  he 
came  along,  with  his  great  hands  spread  out 
like  fans  on  each  side.) 

"Not  at  all,"  said  the  King.  "He's  an 
Anglo-Saxon  Messenger — and  those  are  Anglo- 
Saxon  attitudes.  He  only  does  them  when 
he's  happy.  His  name  is  Haigha. "  (He  pro- 
nounced it  so  as  to  rhyme  with  "mayor.") 

"I  love  my  love  with  a  H,"  Alice  couldn't 
help  beginning,  "because  he  is  Happy.  I  hate 
him  with  an  H,  because  he  is  Hideous.  I  fed 
him  with — with — with  Ham-sandwiches  and 
Hay.      His  name  is  Haigha,  and  he  lives " 

"He  lives  on  the  Hill,"  the  King  remarked 
simply,  without  the  least  idea  that  he  was 
joining  in  the  game,  while  Alice  was  still  hes- 
itating for  the  name  of  a  town  beginning  with 
H.     "The  other    Messenger's    called    Hatta. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


107 


I  must  have  two,  you  know — to  come  and  go. 
One  to  come,  and  one  to  go." 

"I  beg  your  pardon?"  said  Alice. 

"It  isn't  respectable  to  beg,"  said  the  King. 

"I  only  meant  that  I  didn't  understand," 
said  Alice.  "Why  one  to  come  and  one  to  go?" 

"Don't  I  tell  you?"  the  King  repeated  im- 
patiently. "I  must  have  two — to  fetch  and 
carry.     One  to  fetch,  and  one  to  carry. ' ' 


At  this  moment  the  Messenger  arrived:  he 
was  far  too  much  out  of  breath  to  say  a  word, 
and  could  only  wave  his  hands  about,  and 
make  the  most  fearful  faces  at  the  poor  King. 

"This  young  lady  loves  you  with  an  H,"  the 
King   said,    introducing  Alice  in  the  hope  of 


108         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

turning  off  the  Messenger's  attention  from  him- 
self— but  it  was  of  no  use — the  Anglo-Saxon 
attitudes  only  got  more  extraordinary  every 
moment,  while  the  great  eyes  rolled  wildly  from 
side  to  side. 

"You  alarm  me!"  said  the  King.  "I  feel 
faint — give  me  a  ham  sandwich!" 

On  which  the  Messenger,  to  Alice's  great 
amusement,  opened  a  bag  that  hung  round  his 
neck,  and  handed  a  sandwich  to  the  King,  who 
devoured  it  greedily. 

"Another  sandwich!"  said  the  King. 

"There's  nothing  but  hay  left  now,"  the 
Messenger  said,  peeping  into  the  bag. 

"Hay,  then,"  the  King  murmured  in  a  faint 
whisper. 

Alice  was  glad  to  see  that  it  revived  him  a 
good  deal.  "There's  nothing  like  eating  hay 
when  you're  faint,"  he  remarked  to  her,  as  he 
munched  away. 

"I  should  think  throwing  cold  water  over 
you  would  be  better,"  Alice  suggested;  " — or 
some  sal-volatile. " 

"I  didn't  say  there  was  nothing  better,"  the 
King  replied.  "I  said  there  was  nothing  like 
it."     Which  Alice  did  not  venture  to  deny. 

"Who  did  you  pass  on  the  road?"  the  King 
went  on,  holding  out  his  hand  to  the  Messen- 
ger for  some  more  hay. 

"Nobody,"  said  the  Messenger. 

"Quite  right,"  said  the  King;  "this  young 
lady  saw  him,  too.  So,  of  course,  Nobody 
walks  slower  than  you. ' ' 

"I   do  my  best,"  the  Messenger  said  in  a 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         109 

sullen  tone.  "I'm  sure  nobody  walks  much 
faster  than  I  do!" 

"He  can't  do  that,"  said  the  King,  "or  else 
he'd  have  been  here  first.  However,  now 
you've  got  your  breath,  you  may  tell  us  what's 
happened  in  the  town." 

"I'll  whisper  it,"  said  the  Messenger,  put- 
ting his  hands  to  his  mouth  in  the  shape  of  a 
trumpet  and  stooping  so  as  to  get  close  to  the 
King's  ear.  Alice  was  sorry  for  this,  as  she 
wanted  to  hear  the  news,  too.  However,  in- 
stead of  whispering,  he  simply  shouted,  at  the 
top  of  his  voice,  "They're  at  it  again!" 

"Do  you  call  thata whisper?"  cried  the  poor 
King,  jumping  up,  and  shaking  himself.  "If 
you  do  such  a  thing  again,  I'll  have  you  but- 
tered! It  went  through  and  through  my  head 
like  an  earthquake ! ' ' 

"It  would  have  to  be  a  very  tiny  earth- 
quake!" thought  Alice.  "Who  are  at  it 
again?"  she  ventured  to  ask. 

"Why,  the  Lion  and  the  Unicorn,  of  course, " 
said  the  King. 

"Fighting  for  the  crown?" 

"Yes,  to  be  sure,"  said  the  King;  "and  the 
best  of  the  joke  is,  that  it's  my  crown  all  the 
while!  Let's  run  and  see  them."  And  they 
trotted  off,  Alice  repeating  to  herself,  as  she 
ran,  the  words  of  the  old  song: — 


"The  Lion  and  the  Unicorn  were  fighting  for 

the  crown : 
The  Lion  beat  the  Unicorn  all  round  the  town. 


110         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

Some  gave  them  white  bread,  some  gave  them 

brown : 
Some   gave    them    plum-cake    and    drummed 

them  out  of  town." 

'  'Does — the  one — that  wins — get  the  crown?' ' 
she  asked,  as  well  as  she  could,  for  the  run 
was  putting  her  quite  out  of  breath. 

"Dear  me,  no!"  said  the  King.  "What  an 
idea!" 

"Would  you — be  good   enough "     Alice 

panted  out,  after  running  a  little  further,  "to 
stop  a  minute — just  to  get — one's  breath 
again?" 

"I'm  good  enough,"  the  King  said,  "only 
I'm  not  strong  enough.  You  see,  a  minute 
goes  by  so  fearfully  quick.  You  might  as  well 
try  to  stop  a  Bandersnatch!" 

Alice  had  no  more  breath  for  talking;  so 
they  trotted  on  in  silence,  till  they  came  into 
©ight  of  a  great  crowd,  in  the  middle  of  which 
the  Lion  and  Unicorn  were  fighting.  They 
were  in  such  a  cloud  of  dust,  that  at  first  Alice 
could  not  make  out  which  was  which;  but  she 
soon  managed  to  distinguish  the  Unicorn  by 
his  horn. 

They  placed  themselves  close  to  where 
Hatta,  the  other  Messenger,  was  standing 
watching  the  fight,  with  a  cup  of  tea  in  one 
hand  and  a  piece  of  bread-and-butter  in  the 
other. 

"He's  only  just  out  of  prison,  and  he  hadn't 
finished  his  tea  when  he  was  sent  in,"  Haigha 
whispered  to  Alice;   "and  they  only  give  them 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


Ill 


oyster-shells  in  there — so  you  see  he's  very 
hungry  and  thirsty.  How  are  you,  dear  child?" 
he  went  on,  putting  his  arm  affectionately 
round  Hatta's  neck. 

Hatta  looked  round  and  nodded,  and  went 
on  with  his  bread-and-butter. 


>}g~sy~S 


"Were  you  happy  in  prison,  dear  child?" 
said  Haigha. 

Hatta  looked  round  once  more,  and  this  time 
a  tear  or  two  trickled  down  his  cheek ;  but  not 
a  word  would  he  say. 

"Speak,  can't  you!"  Haigha  cried  impa- 
tiently. But  Hatta  only  munched  away,  and 
drank  some  more  tea. 

"Speak,  won't  you!"  cried  the  King. 
"How  are  they  getting  on  with  the  fight?" 


112         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

Hatta  made  a  desperate  effort,  and  swallowed 
a  large  piece  of  bread-and-butter.  "They're 
getting  on  very  well,"  he  said  in  a  choking 
voice:  "each  of  them  has  been  down  about 
eighty-seven  times." 

"Then  I  suppose  they'll  soon  bring  the  white 
bread  and  the  brown?"  Alice  ventured  to  re- 
mark. 

"It's  waiting  for  'em,  now,"  said  Hatta; 
"this  is  a  bit  of  it  as  I'm  eating." 

There  was  a  pause  in  the  fight  just  then,  and 
the  Lion  and  the  Unicorn  sat  down,  panting, 
while  the  King  called  out,  "Ten  minutes 
allowed  for  refreshments!"  Haigha  and 
Hatta  set  to  work  at  once,  carrying  round  trays 
of  white  and  brown  bread.  Alice  took  a  piece 
to  taste,  but  it  was  very  dry. 

' '  I  don't  think  they'll  fight  an}'  more  to-day, ' ' 
the  King  said  to  Hatta:  "go  and  order  the 
drums  to  begin."  And  Hatta  went  bounding 
away  like  a  grasshopper. 

For  a  minute  or  two  Alice  stood  silent, 
watching  him.  Suddenly  she  brightened  up. 
"Look,  look!"  she  cried,  pointing  eagerly. 
"There's  the  White  Queen  running  across  the 
country!      She  came    flying  out   of   the  wood 

over  yonder How    fast    those  Queens  can 

run!" 

"There's  some  enemy  after  her,  no  doubt," 
the  King  said,  without  even  looking  round. 
''That  wood's  full  of  them." 

"But  aren't  you  going  to  run  and  help  her?" 
Alice  asked,  very  much  surprised  at  his  taking 
it  so  quietly. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         118 

"No  use,  no  use!"  said  the  King.  "She 
runs  so  fearfully  quick.  You  might  as  well 
try  to  catch  a  Bandersnatch !     But  I'll  make  a 

memorandum  about  her,  if  you  like She's 

a  dear  good  creature,"  he  repeated  softly  to 
himself,  as  he  opened  his  memorandum-book. 
"Do  you  spell  'creature'  with  a  double  'e'?" 

At  this  moment  the  Unicorn  sauntered  by 
them,  with  his  hands  in  his  pockets.  "I  had 
the  best  of  it  this  time!"  he  said  to  the  King, 
just  glancing  at  him  as  he  passed. 

"A  little — a  little, "  the  King  replied,  rather 
nervously.  "You  shouldn't  have  run  him 
through  with  your  horn,  you  know.  " 

"It  didn't  hurt  him,"  the  Unicorn  said  care- 
lessly, and  he  was  going  on,  when  his  eye  hap- 
pened to  fall  upon  Alice :  he  turned  round 
instantly,  and  stood  for  some  time  looking  at 
her  with  an  air  of  the  deepest  disgust. 

"What — is — this?"  he  said  at  last. 

"This  is  a  child!"  Haigha  replied  eagerly, 
coming  in  front  of  Alice  to  introduce  her,  and 
spreading  out  both  his  hands  towards  her  in 
an  Anglo-Saxon  attitude.  "We  only  found  it 
to-day.  It's  as  large  as  life,  and  twice  as 
natural ! ' ' 

"I  always  thought  they  were  fabulous  mon- 
sters!" said  the  Unicorn.     "Is  it  alive?" 

"It  can  talk,"  said  Haigha  solemnly. 

The  Unicorn  looked  dreamily  at  Alice,  and 
said,  "Talk,  child." 

Alice  could  not  help  her  lips  curling  up  into 
a  smile  as  she  began :  "Do  you  know,  I  always 

8    Looking  Glass 


114 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


thought  Unicorns  were  fabulous  monsters,  too? 
I  never  saw  one  alive  before!" 

"Well,  now  that  we  have  seen  each  other," 
said  the  Unicorn,  "if  you'll  believe  in  me,  I'll 
believe  in  you.     Is  that  a  bargain?" 

"Yes,  if  you  like,"  said  Alice. 

"Come,  fetch  out  the  plum-cake,  old  man!" 
the  Unicorn  went  on,  turning  from  her  to  the 
King.     "None  of  your  brown  bread  for  me!" 


"Certainly — certainly!"  the  King  muttered, 
and  beckoned  to  Haigha.  "Open  the  bag!" 
he  whispered.  "Quick!  Not  that  one — that's 
full  of  hay. " 

Haigha  took  a  large  cake  out  of  the  bag,  and 
gave  it  to  Alice  to  hold,  while  he  got  out  a 
dish  and  carving-knife.       How  they  all  came 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         115 

out  of  it  Alice  couldn't  guess.  It  was  just  like 
a  conjuring  trick,  she  thought. 

The  Lion  had  joined  them  while  this  was 
going  on :  he  looked  very  tired  and  sleepy,  and 
his  eyes  were  half  shut.  "What's  this!"  he 
said,  blinking  lazily  at  Alice,  and  speaking  in 
a  deep  hollow  tone  that  sounded  like  the  toll- 
ing of  a  great  bell. 

"Ah,  what  is  it,  now?"  the  Unicorn  cried 
eagerly.      "You'll  never  guess!     I   couldn't." 

The  Lion  looked  at  Alice  wearily.  "Are  you 
animal — or  vegetable  or  mineral?"  he  said, 
yawning  at  every  other  word. 

"It's  a  fabulous  monster!"  the  Unicorn  cried 
out,  before  Alice  could  reply. 

"Then  hand  round  the  plum-cake,  Mon- 
ster," the  Lion  said,  lying  down  and  putting 
his  chin  on  his  paws.  "And  sit  down,  both  of 
you,"  (to  the  King  and  the  Unicorn):  "fair 
play  with  the  cake,  you  know!" 

The  King  was  evidently  very  uncomfortable 
at  having  to  sit  down  between  the  two  great 
creatures;  but  there  was  no  other  place  for  him. 

"What  a  fight  we  might  have  for  the  crown, 
now!"  the  Unicorn  said,  looking  slyly  up  at 
the  crown,  which  the  poor  King  was  nearly 
shaking  off  his  head,  he  trembled  so  much. 

"I  should  win  easy,"  said  the  Lion. 

"I'm  not  so  sure  of  that,"  said  the  Unicorn. 

"Why,  I  beat  you  all  round  the  town,  you 
chicken!"  the  Lion  replied  angrily,  half  get- 
ting up  as  he  spoke. 

Here  the  King  interrupted,  to  prevent  the 
quarrel  going  on:  he  was  very  nervous,   and 


116         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

his  voice  quite  quivered.  "All  round  the 
town?"  he  said.  "That's  a  good  long  way. 
Did  you  go  by  the  old  bridge,  or  the  market- 
place? You  get  the  best  view  by  the  old 
bridge." 

"I'm  sure  I  don't  know,"  the  Lion  growled 
out  as  he  lay  down  again.  "There  was  too 
much  dust  to  see  anything.  What  a  time  the 
Monster  is,  cutting  up  that  cake!" 

Alice  had  seated  herself  on  the  bank  of  a  lit- 
tle brook,  with  the  great  dish  on  her  knees, 
and  was  sawing  away  diligently  with  the 
knife.  "It's  very  provoking!"  she  said,  in 
reply  to  the  Lion  (she  was  getting  quite  used 
to  being  called  'the  Monster').  "I've  cut  sev- 
eral slices  already,  but  they  always  join  on 
again!" 

"You  don't  know  how  to  manage  Looking- 
glass  cakes,"  the  Unicorn  remarked.  "Hand 
it  round  first,  and  cut  it  afterwards. " 

This  sounded  nonsense,  but  Alice  very 
obediently  got  up,  and  carried  the  dish  round, 
and  the  cake  divided  itself  into  three  pieces  as 
she  did  so.  "Now  cut  it  up,"  said  the  Lion, 
as  she  returned  to  her  place  with  the  empty 
dish. 

"I  say,  this  isn't  fair!"  cried  the  Unicorn, 
as  Alice  sat  with  the  knife  in  her  hand,  very 
much  puzzled  how  to  begin.  "The  Monster 
has  given  the  Lion  twice  as  much  as  me!" 

"She's  kept  none  for  herself,  anyhow, "  said 
the  Lion.  "Do  you  like  plum-cake,  Mon- 
ster?" 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         117 

But  before  Alice  could  answer  him,  the 
drums  began. 

Where  the  noise  came  from,  she  couldn't 
make  out:  the  air  seemed  full  of  it,  and  it 
rang  through  and  through  her  head  till  she 
felt  quite  deafened.  She  started  to  her  feet 
and  sprang  across  the  little  brook  in  her  ter- 
ror, and  had  just  time  to  see  the  Lion  and  the 
Unicorn  rise  to  their  feet,  with  angry  looks  at 
being  interrupted  in  their  feast,  before  she 
dropped  to  her  knees,  and  put  her  hands  over 
her  ears,  vainly  trying  to  shut  out  the  dread- 
ful uproar. 

"If  that  doesn't  'drum  them  out  of  town,'  " 
she  thought  to  herself,  "nothing  ever  will!" 


118         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
"it's  my  own  invention." 

After  a  while  the  noise  seemed  gradually  to 
die  away,  till  all  was  dead  silence,  and  Alice 
lifted  up  her  head  in  some  alarm.  There  was 
no  one  to  be  seen,  and  her  first  thought  was 
that  she  must  have  been  dreaming  about  the 
Lion  and  the  Unicorn  and  those  queer  Anglo- 
Saxon  Messengers.  However,  there  was  the 
great  dish  still  lying  at  her  feet,  on  which  she 
had  tried  to  cut  the  plum-cake,  ''So  I  wasn't 
dreaming,  after  all,"  she  said  to  herself, 
"unless — unless  we're  all  part  of  the  same 
dream.  Only  I  do  hope  it's  my  dream,  and 
not  the  Red  King's!  I  don't  like  belonging  to 
another  person's  dream,"  she  went  on  in  a 
rather  complaining  tone:  "I've  a  great  mind 
to  go  and  wake  him,  and   see  what  happens!" 

At  this  moment  her  thoughts  were  inter- 
rupted by  a  loud  shouting  of  "Ahoy!  Ahoy! 
Check!"  and  a  Knight,  dressed  in  crimson 
armor,  came  galloping  down  upon  her,  bran- 
dishing a  great  club.  Just  as  he  reached  her, 
the  horse  stopped  suddenly:  "You're  my  pris- 
oner!" the  Knight  cried,  as  he  tumbled  off  his 
horse. 

Startled  as  she  was,  Alice  was  more  fright- 
ened for   him  than  for  herself  at  the  moment, 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         119 

and  watched  him  with  some  anxiety  as  he 
mounted  again.  As  soon  as  he  was  comfort- 
ably  in   the    saddle,    he   began    once    more, 

"You're  my "  but  here  another  voice  broke 

in,  "Ahoy!  Ahoy!  Check!"  and  Alice  looked 
round  in  some  surprise  for  the  new  enemy. 

This  time  it  was  a  White  Knight.  He  drew 
up  at  Alice's  side,  and  tumbled  off  his  horse 
just  as  the  Red  Knight  had  done :  then  he  got 
on  again,  and  the  two  Knights  sat  and  looked 
at  each  other  for  some  time  without  speaking. 

Alice  looked  from  one  to  the  other  in  some 
bewilderment. 

"She's  my  prisoner,  you  know!"  the  Red 
Knight  said  at  last. 

"Yes,  but  then  I  came  and  rescued  her!" 
the  White  Knight  replied. 

"Well,  we  must  fight  for  her,  then,"  said 
the  Red  Knight,  as  he  took  up  his  helmet 
(which  hung  from  his  saddle,  and  was  some- 
thing the  shape  of  a  horse's  head)  and  put  it 
on. 

"You  will  observe  the  Rules  of  Battle,  of 
course?"  the  White  Knight  remarked,  putting 
on  his  helmet  too. 

"I  always  do,"  said  the  Red  Knight,  and 
they  began  banging  away  at  each  other  with 
such  fury  that  Alice  got  behind  a  tree  to  be 
out  of  the  way  of  the  blows. 

"I  wonder,  now,  what  the  Rules  of  Battle 
are,"  she  said  to  herself,  as  she  watched  the 
fight,  timidly  peeping  out  from  her  hiding- 
place.  "One  Rule  seems  to  be,  that  if  one 
Knight  hits  the  other,  he  knocks  him  off  his 


120 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


horse;  and,  if  he  misses,  he  tumbles  off  him- 
self— and  another  Rule  seems  to  be  that  they 
hold  their  clubs  with    their  arms,    as  if   they 

were  Punch  and    Judy What  a  noise  they 

make  when  they  tumble !      Just  like  a  whole 


set  of  fire-irons  falling  into  the  fender!  And 
how  quiet  the  horses  are !  They  let  them  get 
on  and  off  them  just  as  if  they  were  tables!" 
Another  Rule  of  Battle,  that  Alice  had  not 
noticed,  seemed  to  be  that  they  always  fell  on 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         121 

their  heads;  and  the  battle  ended  with  their 
both  falling  off  in  this  way,  side  by  side. 
When  they  got  up  again,  they  shook  hands, 
and  then  the  Red  Knight  mounted  and  gal- 
loped off. 

"It  was  a  glorious  victory,  wasn't  it?"  said 
the  White  Knight,  as  he  came  up  panting. 

"I  don't  know,"  Alice  said  doubtfully.  "I 
don't  want  to  be  anybody's  prisoner.  I  want 
to  be  a  Queen." 

"So  you  will,  when  you've  crossed  the  next 
brook,"  said  the  White  Knight.  "I'll  see  you 
safe  to  the  end  of  the  wood — and  then  I  must 
go  back,  you  know.  That's  the  end  of  my 
move. " 

"Thank  you  very  much,"  said  Alice.  "May 
I  help  you  off  with  your  helmet?"  It  was 
evidently  more  than  he  could  manage  by  him- 
self: however,  she  managed  to  shake  him  out 
of  it  at  last. 

"Now  one  can  breathe  more  easily,"  said 
the  Knight,  putting  back  his  shaggy  hair  with 
both  hands,  and  turning  his  gentle  face  and 
large  mild  eyes  to  Alice.  She  thought  she  had 
never  seen  such  a  strange-looking  soldier  in 
all  her  life. 

He  was  dressed  in  tin  armor,  which  seemed 
to  fit  him  very  badly,  and  he  had  a  queer- 
shaped  little  deal  box  fastened  across  his 
shoulders,  upside-down,  and  with  the  lid  hang- 
ing open.  Alice  looked  at  it  with  great  curi- 
osity. 

"I  see  you're  admiring  my  little  box, "  the 
Knight  said  in  a  friendly  tone.     "It's  my  own 


122         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

invention — to  keep  clothes  and  sandwiches  in. 
You  see  I  carry  it  upside  down,  so  that  the 
rain  can't  get  in." 

"But  the  things  can  get  out,"  Alice  gently 
remarked.       "Do  you  know  the  lid's  open?" 

"I  didn't  know  it,"  the  Knight  said,  a 
shade  of  vexation  passing  over  his  face. 
"Then  all  the  things  must  have  fallen  out! 
And  the  box  is  no  use  without  them  !"  He 
unfastened  it  as  he  spoke,  and  was  just  going 
to  throw  it  into  the  bushes,  when  a  sudden 
thought  seemed  to  strike  him,  and  he  hung  it 
carefully  on  a  tree.  "Can  you  guess  why  I 
did  that?"  he  said  to  Alice. 

Alice  shook  her  head. 

"In  hopes  some  bees  may  make  a  nest  in  it 
— then  I  should  get  the  honey." 

"But  you've  got  a  bee-hive — or  something 
like  one — fastened  to  the  saddle,"  said  Alice. 

"Yes,  it's  a  very  good  bee-hive,"  the  Knight 
said  in  a  discontented  tone,  "one  of  the  best 
"kind.  But  not  a  single  bee  has  come  near  it 
yet.  And  the  other  thing  is  a  mouse-trap.  I 
suppose  the  mice  keep  the  bees  out — or  the 
bees  keep  the  mice  out,  I  don't  know 
which. ' ' 

' '  I  was  wondering  what  the  mouse-trap  was 
for, "  said  Alice.  "It  isn't  very  likely  there 
would  be  any  mice  on  the  horse's  back. " 

"Not  very  likely,  perhaps,"  said  the 
Knight;  "but,  if  they  do  come,  I  don't  choose 
to  have  them  running  all  about." 

"You  see,"  he  went  on  after  a  pause,  "it's 
as  well  to  be  provided  for  everything.     That's 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         123 

the  reason  the  horse  has  all  those  anklets 
round  his  feet." 

"But  what  are  they  for?"  Alice  asked  in  a 
tone  of  great  curiosity. 

"To  guard  against  the  bites  of  sharks,"  the 
Knight  replied.  "It's  an  invention  of  my 
own.     And  now  help  me  on.      I'll  go  with  you 

to  the  end  of  the   wood What's  that   dish 

for?" 

"It's  meant  for  plum-cake,"  said  Alice. 

"We'd  better  take  it  with  us, "  the  Knight 
said.  "It'll  come  in  handy  if  we  find  any 
plum-cake.     Help  me  to  get  it  into  this  bag.  " 

This  took  a  long  time  to  manage,  though 
Alice  held  the  bag  open  very  carefully,  be- 
cause the  Knight  was  so  very  awkward  in  put- 
ting in  the  dish :  the  first  two  or  three  times 
that  he  tried  he  fell  in  himself  instead.  "It's 
rather  a  tight  fit,  you  see,"  he  said,  as  they 
got  it  in  at  last;  "there  are  so  many  candle- 
sticks in  the  bag."  And  he  hung  it  to  the  sad- 
dle, which  was  already  loaded  with  bunches  of 
carrots,  and  fire-irons,  and  many  other  things. 

"I  hope  you've  got  your  hair  well  fastened 
on?"  he  continued  as  they  set  off. 

"Only  in  the  usual  way,"  Alice  said,  smil- 
ing. 

"That's  hardly  enough,"  he  said,  anxiously. 
"You  see  the  wind  is  so  very  strong  here. 
It's  as  strong  as  soup.  " 

"Have  you  invented  a  plan  for  keeping  the 
hair  from  being  blown  off?"  Alice  inquired. 

"Not  yet,"  said  the  Knight.  "But  I've  got 
a  plan  for  keeping  it  from  falling  off . " 


124 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


"I  should  like  to  hear  it,  very  much. " 

"First  you  take  an  upright  stick,"  said  the 

Knight.      "Then  you  make  your  hair  creep  up 

it,  like  a  fruit-tr:e.     Now  the  reason  hair  falls 

off  is  because  it  hangs  down — things  never  fall 


^mz^mr-   '' 


upwards,   you  know.      It's  a  plan  of  my  own 
invention.     You  may  try  it  if  you  like. ' ' 

It  didn't  sound  a  comfortable  plan,  Alice 
thought,  and  for  a  few  minutes  she  walked  on 
in  silence,  puzzling  over  the  idea,  and  every 
now  and  then  stopping  to  help  the  poor  knight, 
who  certainly  was  not  a  good  rider. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         125 

Whenever  the  horse  stopped  (which  it  did 
very  often),  he  fell  off  in  front;  and,  whenever 
it  went  on  again  (which  it  generally  did  rather 
suddenly),  he  fell  off  behind.  Otherwise  he 
kept  on  pretty  well,  except  that  he  had  a 
habit  of  now  and  then  falling  off  sideways; 
and,  as  he  generally  did  this  on  the  side  on 
which  Alice  was  walking,  she  soon  found  that 
it  was  the  best  plan  not  to  walk  quite  close  to 
the  horse. 

"I'm  afraid  you've  not  had  much  practice 
in  riding,"  she  ventured  to  say,  as  she  was 
helping  him  up  from  his  fifth  tumble. 

The  Knight  looked  very  much  surprised, 
and  a  little  offended  at  the  remark.  "What 
makes  you  say  that?"  he  asked,  as  he  scram- 
bled back  into  the  saddle,  keeping  hold  of 
Alice's  hair  in  one  hand,  to  save  himself  from 
falling  over  on  the  other  side. 

"Because  people  don't  fall  off  quite  so  often, 
when  they've  had  much  practice." 

"I've  had  plenty  of  practice,"  the  Knight 
said  very  gravely:  "plenty  of  practice!" 

Alice  could  think  of  nothing  better  to  say 
than  "Indeed?"  but  she  said  it  as  heartily  as 
she  could.  They  went  on  a  little  way  in  sil- 
ence after  this,  the  Knight  with  his  eyes  shut, 
muttering  to  himself,  and  Alice  watching 
anxiously  for  the  next  tumble. 

"The  great  art  of  riding,"  the  Knight  sud- 
denly began  in   a  loud  voice,  waving  his  right 

arm    as    he   spoke,  "is    to    keep "     Here 

the  sentence  ended  as  suddenly  as  it  had  begun, 
as  the  Knight  fell   heavily  on  the  top  of  his 


126        THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

head  exactly  in  the  path  where  Alice  was  walk- 
ing. She  was  quite  frightened  this  time,  and 
said  in  an  anxious  tone,  as  she  picked  him  up, 
"I  hope  no  bones  are  broken?" 

"None  to  speak  of,"  the  Knight  said,  as  if 
he  didn't  mind  breaking  two  or  three  of  them. 
"The  great  art  of  riding,  as  I  was  saying,  is 
— to  keep  your  balance  properly.  Like  this, 
you  know " 

He  let  go  the  bridle,  and  stretched  out  both 
his  arms  to  show  Alice  what  he  meant,  and 
this  time  he  fell  flat  on  his  back,  right  under 
the  horse's  feet. 

"Plenty  of  practice!"  he  went  on  repeating, 
all  the  time  that  Alice  was  getting  him  on  his 
feet  again.     "Plenty  of  practice!" 

"It's  too  ridiculous!"  cried  Alice,  losing  all 
her  patience  this  time.  "You  ought  to  have  a 
wooden  horse  on  wheels,  that  you  ought!" 

"Does  that  kind  go  smoothly?"  the  Knight 
asked  in  a  tone  of  great  interest,  clasping  his 
arms  round  the  horse's  neck  as  he  spoke,  just 
in  time  to  save  himself  from  tumbling  off 
again. 

"Much  more  smoothly  than  a  live  horse," 
Alice  said,  with  a  little  scream  of  laughter,  in 
spite  of  all  she  could  do  to  prevent  it. 

"I'll  get  one,"  the  Knight  said  thoughtfully 
to  himself.     "One  or  two — several.  " 

There  was  a  short  silence  after  this,  and 
then  the  Knight  went  on  again.  "I'm  a  great 
hand  at  inventing  things.  Now,  I  daresay  you 
noticed,  the  last  time  you  picked  me  up,  that 
I  was  looking  rather  thoughtful?" 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         127 

"You  were  a  little  grave,"  said  Alice. 

"Well,  just  then  I  was  inventing  a  new  way 
of  getting  over  a  gate — would  you  like  to  hear 
it?" 

"Very  much  indeed,"  Alice  said  politely. 

"I'll  tell  you  how  I  came  to  think  of  it," 
said  the  Knight.  "You  see,  I  said  to  myself, 
'The  only  difficulty  is  with  the  feet;  the  head 
is  high  enough  already. '  Now,  first  I  put  my 
head  on  the  top  of  the  gate — then  the  head's 
high  enough — then  I  stand  on  my  head — then 
the  feet  are  high  enough,  you  see — then  I'm 
over,  you  see. ' ' 

"Yes,  I  suppose  you'd  be  over  when  that 
was  done,"  Alice  said  thoughtfully:  "but 
don't  you  think  it  would  be  rather  hard?" 

"I  haven't  tried  it  yet,"  the  Knight  said, 
gravely;  "so  I  can't  tell  for  certain — but  I'm 
afraid  it  would  be  a  little  hard. ' ' 

He  looked  so  vexed  at  the  idea,  that  Alice 
changed  the  subject  hastily.  "What  a  curious 
helmet  you've  got!"  she  said  cheerfully.  "Is 
that  your  invention  too?" 

The  Knight  looked  down  proudly  at  his  hel- 
met, which  hung  from  the  saddle.  "Yes,"  he 
said;  "but  I've  invented  a  better  one  than 
that — like  a  sugar-loaf.  When  I  used  to  wear 
it,  if  I  fell  off  the  horse,  it  always  touched  the 
ground  directly.  So  I  had  a  very  little  way  to 
fall,  you  see — But  there  was .  the  danger  of 
falling  into  it,  to  be  sure.  That  happened  to 
me  once — and  the  worst  of  it  was,  before  I 
could  get   out  again,  the  other  White    Knight 


128 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


came  and  put  it  on.  He  thought  it  was  his 
own  helmet." 

The  Knight  looked  so  solemn  about  it  that 
Alice  did  not  dare  to  laugh.  "I'm  afraid  you 
must  have  hurt  him,"  she  said  in  a  trembling 
voice,  "being  on  the  top  of  his  head." 

"I  had  to  kick  him,  of  course,"  the  Knight 
said,  very  seriously.  "And  then  he  took  the 
helmet  off  again  but  it  took  hours  and  hours  to 


get  me  out.  I  was  as  fast  as — as  lightning, 
you  know." 

"But  that's  a  different  kind  of  fastness," 
Alice  objected. 

The  Knight  shook  his  head.  "It  was  all 
kinds  of  fastness  with  me,  I  can  assure  }7ou!" 
he  said.  He  raised  his  hands  in  some  excite- 
ment as  he  said  this,-  and  instantly  rolled  out 
of  the  saddle,  and  fell  headlong  into  a  deep 
ditch. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         129 

Alice  ran  to  the  side  of  the  ditch  to  look  for 
him.  She  was  rather  startled  by  the  fall,  as 
for  some  time  he  had  kept  on  very  well,  and 
she  was  afraid  that  he  really  was  hurt  tkis 
time.  However,  though  she  could  see  nothing 
but  the  soles  of  his  feet,  she  was  much  relieved 
to  hear  that  he  was  talking  on  in  his  usual 
tone.  "All  kinds  of  fastness,"  he  repeated: 
"but  it  was  careless  of  him  to  put  another 
man's  helmet  on — with  the  man  in  it,  too." 

"How  can  you  go  on  talking  so  quietly,  head 
downwards?"  Alice  asked,  as  she  dragged  him 
out  by  the  feet,  and  laid  him  in  a  heap  on  the 
bank. 

The  Knight  looked  surprised  at  the  question. 
"What  does  it  matter  where  my  body  happens 
to  be?"  he  said.  "My  mind  goes  on  working 
all  the  same.  In  fact,  the  more  head-down- 
wards I  am,  the  more  I  keep  inventing  new 
things. ' ' 

"Now  the  cleverest  thing  of  the  sort  that  I 
ever  did,"  he  went  on  after  a  pause,  "was  in- 
venting a  new  pudding  during  the  meat- 
course." 

"In  time  to  have  it  cooked  for  the  next 
course?"  said  Alice.  "Well,  that  was  quick 
work,  certainly!" 

"Well,  not  the  next  course, "  the  Knight  said 
in  a  slow  thoughtful  tone;  "no,  certainly  not 
the  next  course." 

"Then  it  would  have  to  be  the  next  day.  I 
suppose  you  wouldn't  have  two  pudding 
courses  in  one  dinner?" 

"Well,    not   the  next   day, "  the  Knight  re- 

0    Looking  Glass 


130         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

peated  as  before;  "not  the  next  day.  In  fact," 
he  went  on,  holding  his  head  down,  and  his 
voice  getting  lower  and  lower,  "I  don't  believe 
that  pudding  ever  was  cooked!  In  fact,  I 
don't  believe  that  pudding  ever  will  be  cooked ! 
And  yet  it  was  a  very  clever  pudding  to 
invent." 

""What  did  you  mean  it  to  be  made  of?" 
Alice  asked,  hoping  to  cheer  him  up,  for  the 
poor  Knight  seemed  quite  low-spirited  about  it. 

"It  began  with  blotting-paper,"  the  Knight 
answered  with  a  groan. 

' '  That  wouldn't  be  very  nice,  I'm  afraid " 

"Not  very  nice  alone,"  he  interrupted,  quite 
eagerly;  "but  you've  no  idea  what  a  difference 
it  makes,  mixing  it  with  other  things — such  as 
gunpowder  and  sealing-wax.  And  here  I 
must  leave  you. ' '  They  had  just  come  to  the 
end  of  the  wood. 

Alice  could  only  look  puzzled ;  she  was  think- 
ing of  the  pudding. 

"You  are  sad,"  the  Knight  said  in  an  anx- 
ious tone;  "let  me  sing  you  a  song  to  comfort 
you. ' ' 

"Is  it  very  long?"  Alice  asked,  for  she  had 
heard  a  good  deal  of  poetry  that  day. 

"It's  long,"  said  the  Knight,  "but  it's  very, 
very  beautiful.  Everybody  that  hears  me  sing 
it — either  it  brings  the  tears  into  their  eyes,  or 
else — " 

"Or  else  what?"  said  Alice,  for  the  Knight 
had  made  a  sudden  pause. 

"Or  else  it  doesn't,  you  know.  The  name 
of  the  song  is  called  'Haddocks'  Eyes.'  " 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         131 

"Oh,  that's  the  name  of  the  song,  is  it?" 
Alice  said,  trying  to  feel  interested. 

"No,  you  don't  understand,"  the  Knight 
said,  looking  a  little  vexed.  "That's  what  the 
name  is  called.  The  name  really  is  'The  Aged, 
Aged  Man.'  " 

"Then  I  ought  to  have  said  'That's  what  the 
song  is  called'?"  Alice  corrected  herself. 

"No,  you  oughtn't;  that's  quite  another 
thing!  The  song  is  called  'Ways  and  Means'; 
but  that's  only  what  it's  called,  you  know!" 

"Well,  what  is  the  song,  then?"  said  Alice, 
who  was  by  this  time  completely  bewildered. 

"I  was  coming  to  that, "the  Knight  said. 
"The  song  really  is  'A-sitting  on  a  Gate'; 
and  the  tune's  my  own  invention." 

So  saying,  he  stopped  his  horse  and  let  the 
reins  fall  on  its  neck;  then,  slowly  beating 
time  with  one  hand,  and  with  a  faint  smile 
lighting  up  his  gentle  foolish  face,  as  if  he  en- 
joyed the  music  of  his  song,  he  began. 

Of  all  the  strange  things  that  Alice  saw  in 
her  journey  Through  The  Looking-Glass,  this 
was  the  one  that  she  always  remembered  most 
clearly.  Years  afterwards  she  could  bring  the 
whole  scene  back  again,  as  if  it  had  been  only 
yesterday  —  the  mild  blue  eyes  and  kindly 
smile  of  the  Knight — the  setting  sun  gleaming 
through  his  hair,  and  shining  on  his  armor  in 
a  blaze  of  light  that  quite  dazzled  her — the 
horse  quietly  moving  about,  with  the  reins 
hanging  loose  on  his  neck,  cropping  the  grass 
at  her  feet — and  the  black  shadows  of  the  for- 
est behind — all  this  she  took  in  like  a  picture, 


132         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

as,  with  one  hand  shading  her  eyes,  she  leant 
against  a  tree,  watching  the  strange  pair,  and 
listening,  in  a  half-dream,  to  the  melancholy 
music  of  the  song. 

"But  the  tune  isn't  his  own  invention,"  she 
said  to  herself;  "it's  'I  give  thee  all,  I  can  no 
more.'"  She  stood  and  listened  very  attent- 
ively, but  no  tears  came  into  her  eyes. 

"I'll  tell  thee  everything  I  can: 

There's  little  to  relate. 
I  saw  an  aged  aged  man, 

A-sitting  on  a  gate. 
'Who  are  you,  aged  man?'  I  said, 

'And  how  is  it  you  live?' 
And  his  answer  trickled  through  my  head, 

Like  water  through  a  sieve. 

He  said,  'I  look  for  butterflies 

That  sleep  among  the  wheat: 
I  make  them  into  mutton-pies, 

And  sell  them  in  the  street. 
I  sell  them  unto  men,'  he  said, 

'Who  sail  on  stormy  seas; 
And  that's  the  way  I  get  my  bread — 

A  trifle,  if  you  please. ' 

But  I  was  thinking  of  a  plan 

To  dye  one's  whiskers  green, 
And  always  use  so  large  a  fan 

That  they  could  not  be  seen. 
So,  having  no  reply  to  give 

To  what  the  old  man  said, 
I  cried,  'Come,  tell  me  how  you  live!' 

And  thumped  him  on  the  head. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         133 

His  accents  mild  took  up  the  tale : 

He  said,  'I  go  my  ways, 
And  when  I  find  a  mountain-rill, 

I  set  it  in  a  blaze ; 
And  thence  they  make  a  stuff  they  call 

Rowland's  Macassar-Oil — 
Yet  twopence-halfpenny  is  all 

They  give  me  for  my  toil. ' 

But  I  was  thinking  of  a  way 

To  feed  oneself  on  batter, 
And  so  go  on  from  day  to  day 

Getting  a  little  fatter. 
I  shook  him  well  from  side  to  side, 

Until  his  face  was  blue : 
'Come,  tell  me  how  you  live,'  I  cried, 

'And  what  it  is  you  do!' 

He  said,  'I  hunt  for  haddocks'  eyes 

Among  the  heather  bright, 
And  work  them  into  waistcoat-buttons 

In  the  silent  night. 
And  these  I  do  not  sell  for  gold 

Or  coin  of  silvery  shine, 
But  for  a  copper  halfpenny, 

And  that  will  purchase  nine. 

'I  sometimes  dig  for  buttered  rolls, 

Or  set  limed  twigs  for  crabs : 
I  sometimes  search  the  grassy  knolls 

For  wheels  of  Hansom-cabs. 
And  that's  the  way'  (he  gave  a  wink) 

'By  which  I  get  my  wealth — 
And  very  gladly  will  I  drink 

Your  Honor's  noble  health. ' 


134       THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

I  heard  him  then,  for  I  had  just 

Completed  my  design 
To  keep  the  Menai  bridge  from  rust 

By  boiling  it  in  wine. 
I  thanked  him  much  for  telling  me 

The  way  he  got  his  wealth, 
But  chiefly  for  his  wish  that  he 

Might  drink  my  noble  health. 

And  now,  if  e'er  by  chance  I  put 

My  fingers  into  glue, 
Or  madly  squeeze  a  right-hand  foot 

Into  a  left-hand  shoe, 
Or  if  I  drop  upon  my  toe 

A  very  heavy  weight, 
I  weep,  for  it  reminds  me  so 
Of  that  old  man  I  used  to  know — 
Whose  look  was  mild,  whose  speech  was  slow, 
Whose  hair  was  whiter  than  the  snow, 
Whose  face  was  very  like  a  crow, 
With  eyes,  like  cinders,  all  aglow, 
Who  seemed  distracted  with  his  woe, 
Who  rocked  his  body  to  and  fro, 
And  muttered  mumblingly  and  low, 
As  if  his  mouth  were  full  of  dough, 
Who  snorted  like  a  buffalo — 
That  summer  evening  long  ago, 

A-sitting  on  a  gate." 

As  the  Knight  sang  the  last  words  of  the 
ballad,  he  gathered  up  the  reins,  and  turned 
his  horse's  head  along  the  road  by  which  they 
had  come.  "You've  only  a  few  yards  to  go," 
he   said,  "down   the   hill  and  over  that   little 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         135 

brook,  and  then  you'll  be  a  Queen — but  you'll 
stay  and  see  me  off  first?"  he  added  as  Alice 
turned  with  an  eager  look  in  the  direction  to 
which  he  pointed.  "I  sha'n't  be  long.  You'll 
wait  and  wave  your  handkerchief  when  I  get 
to  that  turn  in  the  road!  I  think  it'll  encour- 
age me,  you  see." 

"Of  course,  I'll  wait,"  said  Alice;  "and 
thank  you  very  much  for  coming  so  far — and 
for  the  song — I  liked  it  very  much. ' ' 

"I  hope  so,"  the  Knight  said  doubtfully; 
"but  you  didn't  cry  so  much  as  I  thought 
you  would. ' ' 

So  they  shook  hands,  and  then  the  Knight 
rode  slowly  away  into  the  forest.  "It  won't  take 
long  to  see  him  off,  I  expect,"  Alice  said  to 
herself,  as  she  stood  watching  him.  "There 
he  goes !  Right  on  his  head  as  usual !  How- 
ever, he  gets  on  again  pretty  easily  —  that 
comes  of  having  so  many  things  hung  round 

the  horse "     So   she   went   on   talking   to 

herself,  as  she  watched  the  horse  walking  leis- 
urely along  the  road,  and  the  Knight  tumbling 
off,  first  on  one  side,  and  then  on  the  other. 
After  the  fourth  or  fifth  tumble  he  reached 
the  turn,  and  then  she  waved  her  handkerchief 
to  him,  and  waited  till  he  was  out  of  sight. 

"I  hope  it  encouraged  him,"  she  said,  as  she 
turned  to  run  down  the  hill;  "and  now  for 
the  last  brook,  and  to  be  a  Queen!  How 
grand  it  sounds ! "  A  very  few  steps  brought 
her  to  the  edge  of  the  brook.  "The  Eighth 
Square    at    last!"    she    cried  as  she  bounded 


136         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


across,  and  threw  herself  down  to  rest  on  a 
lawn  as  soft  as  moss,  with  little  flower-beds 
dotted  about  it  here   and  there.     "Oh,    how 


glad  I  am  to  get  here !  And  what  is  this  on 
my  head?"  she  exclaimed  in  a  tone  of  dismay, 
as  she  put  her  hands  up  to  something  very 
heavy,  that  fitted  tight  all  round  her  head. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         137 

"But  how  can  it  have  got  there  without  my 
knowing  it?"  she  said  to  herself  as  she  lifted 
it  off,  and  set  it  on  her  lap  to  make  out  what 
it  could  possibly  be. 

It  was  a  golden  crown. 


138         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

QUEEN    ALICE. 

"Well,  this  is  grand!"  said  Alice.  "I  never 
expected  I  should  be  a  Queen  so  soon — and 
I'll  tell  you  what  it  is,  your  Majesty,"  she 
went  on,  in  a  severe  tone  (she  was  always 
rather  fond  of  scolding  herself),  "it'll  never 
do  for  you  to  be  lolling  about  on  the  grass  like 
that!  Queens  have  to  be  dignified,  you 
know ! ' ' 

So  she  got  up  and  walked  about — rather  stifly 
just  at  first,  as  she  was  afraid  that  the  crown 
might  come  off:  but  she  comforted  herself 
with  the  thought  that  there  was  nobody  to  see 
her,  "and  if  I  really  am  a  Queen,"  she  said  as 
she  sat  down  again,  "I  shall  be  able  to 
manage  it  quite  well  in  time. ' ' 

Everything  was  happening  so  oddly  that  she 
didn't  feel  a  bit  surprised  at  finding  the  Red 
Queen  and  the  White  Queen  sitting  close  to 
her,  one  on  each  side :  she  would  have  liked 
very  much  to  ask  them  how  they  came  there, but 
she  feared  it  would  not  be  quite  civil.  How- 
ever, th$re  would  be  no  harm,  she  thought,  in 
asking  if  the  game  was  over.  ' '  Please,  would 
you  tell  me — "  she  began,  looking  timidly  at 
the  Red  Oueen. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         139 

"Speak  when  you're  spoken  to!"  the  Queen 
sharply  interrupted  her. 

"But  if  everybody  obeyed  that  rule,"  said 
Alice,  who  was  always  ready  for  a  little 
argument,  "and  if  you  only  spoke  when  you 
were  spoken  to,  and  the  other  person  always 
waited  for  you  to  begin,  you  see  nobody  would 
ever  say  anything,  so  that — " 

"Ridiculous!"  cried  the  Queen.  "Why 
don't  you  see,  child — "  here  she  broke  off  with 
a  frown,  and,  after  thinking  for  a  minute, 
suddenly  changed  the  subject  of  the  conversa- 
tion. "What  do  you  mean  by  'If  you  really 
are  a  Queen?'  What  right  have  you  to  call 
yourself  so?  You  can't  be  a  Queen,  you 
know,  till  you've  passed  the  proper  examina- 
tion.    And  the  sooner  we  begin  it,  the  better. " 

"I  only  said  'if'!"  poor  Alice  pleaded  in  a 
piteous  tone. 

The  two  Queens  looked  at  each  other,  and 
the  Red  Queen  remarked,  with  a  little  shud- 
der,   "She  says  she  only  said  'if — " 

"But  she  said  a  great  deal  more  than  that!" 
the  White  Queen  moaned,  wringing  her  hands. 
"Oh,  ever  so  much  more  than  that!" 

"So  you  did,  you  know,"  the  Red  Queen 
said  to  Alice.  "Always  speak  the  truth — think 
before  you  speak — and  write  it  down  after- 
wards." 

"I'm  sure  I  didn't  mean — "  Alice  was 
beginning,  but  the  Red  Queen  interrupted 
her  impatiently. 

"That's  just  what  I  complain  of!  You 
should  have  meant!     What  do  you  suppose  is 


140         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

the  use  of  a  child  without  any  meaning?  Even 
a  joke  should  have  some  meaning — and  a 
child's  more  important  than  a  joke,  I  hope. 
You  couldn't  deny  that,  even  if  you  tried  with 
both  hands." 

"I  don't  deny  things  with  my  hands,"  Alice 
objected. 

' 'Nobody  said  you  did, ' '  said  the  Red  Queen. 
"I  said  you  couldn't  if  you  tried." 

"She's  in  that  state  of  mind,"  said  the 
White  Queen,  "that  she  wants  to  deny  some- 
thing— only  she  doesn't  know  what   to  deny!" 

"A  nasty,  vicious  temper,"  the  Red  Queen 
remarked;  and  then  there  was  an  uncomfort- 
able silence  for  a  minute  or  two. 

The  Red  Queen  broke  the  silence  by  saying, 
to  the  White  Queen,  "I  invite  yon  to  Alice's 
dinner-party  this  afternoon." 

The  White  Queen  smiled  feebly,  and  said 
"And  I  invite  you." 

"I  didn't  know  I  was  to  have  a  party  at  all," 
said  Alice;  "but,  if  there  is  to  be  one,  I  think 
I  ought  to  invite  the  guests. " 

"We  gave  you  the  opportunity  of  doing  it," 
the  Red  Queen  remarked:  "but  I  daresay 
you've  not  had  many  lessons  in  manners  yet?" 

"Manners  are  not  taught  in  lessons,"  said 
Alice.  "Lessons  teach  you  to  do  sums,  and 
things  of  that  sort." 

"Can  you  do  Addition?"  the  White  Queen 
asked.  "What's  one  and  one  and  one  and  one 
and  one  and  one  and  one  and  one  and  one  and 
one?" 

"I  don't  know, "  said  Alice.     "I  lost  count." 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         141 

"She  can't  do  Addition,"  the  Red  Queen 
interrupted.  "Can  you  do  subtraction?  Take 
nine  from  eight." 

"Nine  from  eight  I  can't,  you  know,"  Alice 
replied  very  readily:  "but — " 

"She  can't  do  Subtraction,"  said  the  White 
Queen.  "Can  you  do  Division?  Divide  a  loaf 
by  a  knife — what's  the  answer  to  that?" 

"I  suppose — "  Alice  was  beginning,  but  the 
Red  Queen  answered  for  her.  "Bread-and- 
butter,  of  course.  Try  another  Subtraction 
sum.  Take  a  bone  from  a  dog:  what 
remains?" 


Alice  considered.  "The  bone  wouldn't 
remain,  of  course,  if  I  took  it — and  the  dog 
wouldn't  remain:  it  would  come  to  bite  me — 
and  I'm  sure  I  shouldn't  remain!" 

"Then  you  think  nothing  would  remain?" 

said  the  Red  Queen. 
10  * 


142  THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"I  think  that's  the  answer." 

"Wrong,  as  usual,"  said  the  Red  Queen: 
"the  dog's  temper  would  remain." 

"But  I  don't  see  how — " 

"Why,  look  here!"  the  Red  Queen  cried. 
"The  dog  would  lose  its  temper,  wouldn't  it?" 

' '  Perhaps  it  would, ' '  Alice  replied  cautiously. 

"Then  if  the  dog  went  away  its  temper 
would  remain!"  the  Queen  exclaimed  triumph- 
antly. 

Alice  said,  as  gravely  as  she  could,  "They 
might  go  different  ways."  But  she  couldn't 
help  thinking  to  herself,  "What  dreadful 
nonsense  we  are  talking!" 

"She  can't  do  sums  a  bit!"  the  Queens  said 
together,  with  great  emphasis. 

"Can  you  do  sums?"  Alice  said,  turning 
suddenly  on  the  White  Queen,  for  she  didn't 
like  being  found  fault  with  so  much. 

The  Queen  gasped  and  shut  her  eyes.  "I 
can  do  Addition,"  she  said,  "if  you  give  me 
time — but  I  can't  do  Subtraction  under  any 
circumstances!" 

"Of  course  you  know  your  ABC?"  said  the 
Red  Queen. 

"To  be  sure  I  do,"  said  Alice. 

"So  do  I,"  the  White  Queen  whispered: 
"we'll  often  say  it  over  together,  dear.  And 
I'll  tell  you  a  secret — I  can  read  words  of  one 
letter!  Isn't  that  grand?  However,  don't  be 
discouraged.     You'll  come  to  it  in  time." 

Here  the  Red  Queen  began  again.  "Can 
you  answer  useful  questions?"  she  said. 
"How  is  bread  made?" 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         143 

"I  know  that!"  Alice  cried  eagerly.  "You 
take  some  flour — " 

"Where  do  you  pick  the  flower?"  the  White 
Queen  asked.     "In  a  garden  or  in  the  hedges?" 

"Well,  it  isn't  picked  at  all,"  Alice 
explained:  "it's  ground — " 

"How  many  acres  of  ground?"  said  the 
White  Queen.  "You  mustn't  leave  out  so 
many  things. " 

"Fan  her  head!"  the  Red  Queen  anxiously 
interrupted.  "She'll  be  feverish  after  so 
much  thinking."  So  they  set  to  work  and 
fanned  her  with  bunches  of  leaves,  till  she  had 
to  beg  them  to  leave  off,  it  blew  her  hair  about 
so. 

"She's  all  right  again  now,"  said  the  Red 
Queen.  "Do  you  know  languages?  What's 
the  French  for  fiddle-de-dee?" 

"Fiddle-de-dee's  not  English,"  Alice  replied 
gravely. 

"Who  ever  said  it  was?"  said  the  Red  Queen. 

Alice  thought  she  saw  a  way  out  of  the 
difficulty,  this  time.  "If  you'll  tell  me  what 
language  'fiddle-de-dee'  is,  I'll  tell  you  the 
French  for  it!"  she  exclaimed  triumphantly. 

But  the  Red  Queen  drew  herself  up  rather 
stiffly, and  said  "Queens  never  make  bargains. " 

"I  wish  Queens  never  asked  questions," 
Alice  thought  to  herself. 

"Don't  let  us  quarrel,"  the  White  Queen 
said  in  an  anxious  tone.  "What  is  the  cause 
of  lightning?" 

"The  cause  of  lightning,"  Alice  said  very 
decidedly,  for  she  felt  quite  certain  about  this, 


144         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"is  the  thunder — no,  no!"  she  hastily  cor- 
rected herself.      "I  meant  the  other  way." 

"It's  too  late  to  correct  it,"  said  the  Red 
Queen:  "when  you've  once  said  a  thing,  that 
fixes  it,  and  you  must  take  the  consequences." 

"Which  reminds  me — "  the  White  Queen 
said,  looking  down  and  nervously  clasping  and 
unclasping  her  hands,  "we  had  such  a  thunder- 
storm last  Tuesday — I  mean  one  of  the  last  set 
of  Tuesdays,  you  know." 

Alice  was  puzzled.  "In  our  country,"  she 
remarked,  "there's  only  one  day  at  a  time." 

The  Red  Queen  said  "That's  a  poor  thin 
way  of  doing  things.  Now  here,  we  mostly 
have  days  and  nights  two  or  three  at  a  time, 
and  sometimes  in  the  winter  we  take  as  many 
as  five  nights  together — for  warmth,  you 
know. ' ' 

"Are  five  nights  warmer  than  one  night, 
then?"  Alice  ventured  to  ask. 

"Five  times  as  warm,  of  course." 

"But  they  should  be  five  times  as  cold,  by 
the  same  rule " 

"Just  so!"  cried  the  Red  Queen.  "Five 
times  as  warm,  and  five  times  as  cold — just  as 
I'm  five  times  as  rich  as  you  are,  and  five 
times  as  clever!" 

Alice  sighed  and  gave  it  up.  "It's  exactly 
like  a  riddle  with  no  answer!"  she  thought. 

"Humpty  Dumpty  saw  it  too,"  the  White 
Queen  went  on  in  a  low  voice,  more  as  if  she 
were  talking  to  herself.  "He  came  to  the 
door  with  a  corkscrew  in  his  hand " 

"What  did  he  want?"  said  the  Red  Oueen. 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         145 

"He  said  he  would  come  in,"  the  White 
Queen  went  on,  "because  he  was  looking  for  a 
hippopotamus.  Now,  as  it  happened,  there 
wasn't  such  a  thing  in  the  house,  that  morn- 
ing." 

"Is  there  generally?"  Alice  asked  in  an  aston- 
ished tone. 

"Well,  only  on  Thursdays,"  said  the  Queen. 

"I  know  what  he  came  for,"  said  Alice:  "he 
wanted  to  punish  the  fish,  because " 

Here  the  White  Queen  began  again.  "It 
was  such  a  thunderstorm,  you  can't  think!" 
("She  never  could,  you  know,"  said  the  Red 
Queen.)  "And  part  of  the  roof  came  off, 
and  ever  so  much  thunder  got  in — and  it  went 
rolling  round  the  room  in  great  lumps — and 
knocking  over  the  tables  and  things — till  I  was 
so  frightened,  I  couldn't  remember  my  own 
name!" 

Alice  thought  to  herself  "I  never  should  try 
to  remember  my  name  in  the  middle  of  an 
accident!  Where  would  be  the  use  of  it?"  but 
she  did  not  say  this  aloud,  for  fear  of  hurting 
the  poor  Queen's  feelings. 

"Your  Majesty  must  excuse  her, "  the  Red 
Queen  said  to  Alice,  taking  one  of  the  White 
Queen's  hands  in  her  own,  and  gently  strok- 
ing it:  "she  means  well,  but  she  can't  help 
saying  foolish  things,  as  a  general  rule." 

The  White  Queen  looked  timidly  at  Alice, 
who  felt  she  ought  to  say  something  kind,  but 
really  couldn't  think  of  anything  at  the  mo- 
ment. 

"She  never  was  really  well  brought  up,"  the 

10    Looking  Glass 


146 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


Red  Queen  went  on:  "but  it's  amazing  how 
good  tempered  she  is!  Pat  her  on  the  head, 
and  see  how  pleased  she'll  be!"  But  this  was 
more  than  Alice  had  courage  to  do. 

"A  little  kindness  —  and  putting  her  hair 
in  papers — would  do  wonders  with  her " 

The  White  Queen  gave  a  deep  sigh,  and 
laid  her  head  on  Alice's  shoulder.  "I  am  so 
sleepy!"  she  moaned. 


"She's  tired,  poor  thing!"  said  the  Red 
Queen.  "Smooth  her  hair  —  lend  her  your 
nightcap — and  sing  her  a  soothing  lullaby." 

"I  haven't  got  a  nightcap  with  me,"  said 
Alice,  as  she  tried  to  obey  the  first  direction : 
"and  I  don't  know  any  soothing  lullabies." 

"I  must  do  it  myself,  then,"  said  the  Red 
Queen,  and  she  began:- 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         147 

"Hush-a-by  lady,  in  Alice's  lap! 
Till  the  feast's  ready,  we've  time  for  a  nap. 
When  the  feast's  over,  we'll  go  to  the  ball — 
Red   Queen,  and  White  Queen,   and   Alice, 
and  all! 

"And  now  you  know  the  words,"  she  added, 
as  she  put  her  head  down  on  Alice's  other 
shoulder,  "just  sing  it  through  to  me.  I'm 
getting  sleepy,  too.  "  In  another  moment  both 
Queens  were  fast  asleep,  and  snoring 
loud. 

"What  am  I  to  do?"  exclaimed  Alice,  looking 
about  in  great  perplexity,  as  first  one  round 
head,  and  then  the  other,  rolled  down  from 
her  shoulder,  and  lay  like  a  heavy  lump  in  her 
lap.  "I  don't  think  it  ever  happened  before, 
that  any  one  had  to  take  care  of  two  Queens 
asleep  at  once !  No,  not  in  all  the  History  of 
England — it  couldn't,  you  know,  because  there 
never  was  more  than  one  Queen  at  a  time. 
Do  wake  up,  you  heavy  things!"  she  went  on 
in  an  impatient  tone ;  but  there  was  no  answer 
but  a  gentle  snoring. 

The  snoring  got  more  distinct  every  minute, 
and  sounded  more  like  a  tune :  at  last  she 
could  even  make  out  words,  and  she  listened 
so  eagerly  that,  when  the  two  great  heads  sud- 
denly vanished  from  her  lap,  she  hardly  missed 
them. 

She  was  standing  before  an  arched  doorway, 
over  whichwere  the  words  "QUEEN  ALICE" 
in  large  letters,  and  on  each  side  of  the  arch 
there    was    a    bell-handle;    one   was   marked 


148         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.' 

"Visitors'  Bell,"  and  the  other  "Servants' 
Bell." 

"I'll  wait  till  the  song's  over,"  thought 
Alice,  "and  then  I'll  ring  the — the — which 
bell  must  I  ring?"  she  went  on,  very  much 
puzzled  by  the  names.  "I'm  not  a  visitor, 
and  I'm  not  a  servant.  There  ought  to  be 
one  marked  'Queen,'  you  know " 

Just  then  the  door  opened  a  little  way,  and 
a  creature  with  a  long  beak  put  its  head  out 
for  a  moment  and  said  "No  admittance  till 
the  week  after  next!"  and  shut  the  door  again 
with  a  bang. 

Alice  knocked  and  rang  in  vain  for  a  long 
time;  but  at  last  a  very  old  Frog,  who  was 
sitting  under  a  tree,  got  up  and  hobbled  slowly 
towards  her:  he  was  dressed  in  bright  yellow, 
and  had  enormous  boots  on. 

"What  is  it,  now?"  the  Frog  said  in  a  deep 
hoarse  whisper. 

Alice  turned  round,  ready  to  find  fault  with 
anybody.  "Where's  the  servant  whose  busi- 
ness it  is  to  answer  the  door?"  she  began 
angrily. 

"Which  door?"  said  the  Frog. 

Alice  almost  stamped  with  irritation  at  the 
slow  drawl  in  which  he  spoke.  "This  door, 
of  course!" 

The  Frog  looked  at  the  door  with  his  large 
dull  eyes  for  a  minute:  then  he  went  nearer 
and  rubbed  it  with  his  thumb,  as  if  he  were 
trying  whether  the  paint  would  come  off:  then 
he  looked  at  Alice. 

"To  answer  the  door?"  he  said.     "What's  it 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


149 


been  asking-  of?"     He  was  so  hoarse  that  Alice 
could  scarcely  hear  him. 

"I  don't  know  what  you  mean,"  she  said. 


"I  speaks  English,  doesn't  I?"  the  Frog  went 
on.     "Or  are  you  deaf?  What  did  it  ask  you?" 

"Nothing!"  Alice  said  impatiently.  "I've 
been  knocking  at  it!" 

"Shouldn't  do  that — shouldn't  do  that " 


150         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.- 

the  Frog  muttered.  "Wexes  it,  you  know." 
Then  he  went  up  and  gave  the  door  a  kick  with 
one  of  his  great  feet.  "You  let  it  alone,"  he 
panted  out,  as  he  hobbled  back  to  his  tree, 
"and  it'll  let  you  alone,  you  know.  " 

At  this  moment  the  door  was  flung  open, 
and  a  shrill  voice  was  heard  singing: — 

"To  the  Looking-Glass  world  it  was  Alice  that 

said 
'I've  a  sceptre  in  hand   I've  a   crown  on  my 

head. 
Let   the   Looking-Glass    creatures,     whatever 

they  be 
Come  and  dine  with  the  Red  Queen,  the  White 

Queen,  and  me!'  " 

And  hundreds  of  voices  joined  in  the  chorus : — 

"Then  fill  up  the  glasses  as  quick  as  you  can, 
And  sprinkle  the  table  with  buttons  and  bran : 
Put  cats  in  the  coffee,  and  mice  in  the  tea — 
And  welcome  Queen  Alice  with  thirty-times- 
three!" 

Then  followed  a  confused  noise  of  cheering, 
and  Alice  thought  to  herself  "Thirty  times 
three  makes  ninety.  I  wonder  if  any  one's 
counting?"  In  a  minute  there  was  silence 
again,  and  the  same  shrill  voice  sang  another 
verse : — 

" 'O     Looking-Glass  creatures,'   quoth  Alice, 

'draw  near! 
'Tis  an  honor  to  see  me,  a  favor  to  hear: 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.        151 

'Tis  a  privilege  high  to  have  dinner  and  tea 
Along  with  the  Red  Queen,  the  White  Queen, 
and  me!'  " 

Then  came  the  chorus  again: — 

"Then  fill  up  the  glasses  with  treacle  and  ink, 
Or  anything  else  that  is  pleasant  to  drink: 
Mix  sand  with  the  cider,  and  wool  with  the 

wine — 
And  welcome  Queen  Alice  with  ninety-times- 
nine!" 

"Ninety  times  nine!"  Alice  repeated  in 
despair.       "Oh,    that'll  never  be  done!      I'd 

better   go  in  at  once "  and  in   she  went, 

and  there  was  a  dead  silence  the  moment  she 
appeared. 

Alice  glanced  nervously  along  the  table,  as 
she  walked  up  the  large  hall,  and  noticed  that 
there  were  about  fifty  guests,  of  all  kinds: 
some  were  animals,  some  birds,  and  there  were 
even  a  few  flowers  among  them.  "I'm  glad 
they've  come  without  waiting  to  be  asked," 
she  thought:  "I  should  never  have  known 
who  were  the  right  people  to  invite!" 

There  were  three  chairs  at  the  head  of  the 
table :  the  Red  and  White  Queens  had  already 
taken  two  of  them,  but  the  middle  one  was 
empty.  Alice  sat  down  in  it,  rather  uncom- 
fortable at  the  silence,  and  longing  for  some 
one  to  speak. 

At  last  the  Red  Queen  began.  "You've 
missed  the  soup  and  fish,"   she    said.     "Put 


152         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.' 

on  the  joint!"  And  the  waiters  set'alegof 
mutton  before  Alice,  who  looked  at  it  rather 
anxiously,  as  she  had  never  had  to  carve  a 
joint  before. 

"You  look  a  little  shy:  let  me  introduce 
you    to  that   leg  of    mutton,"  said    the    Red 

Queen.  "Alice Mutton:  Mutton Alice." 

The  leg  of  mutton  got  up  in  the  dish  and 
made  a  little  bow  to  Alice ;  and  Alice  returned 
the  bow,  not  knowing  whether  to  be  fright- 
ened or  amused. 

"May  I  give  you  a  slice?"  she  said,  taking 
up  the  knife  and  fork,  and  looking  from  one 
Queen  to  the  other. 

"Certainly  not,"  the  Red  Queen  said,  very 
decidedly:  "it  isn't  etiquette  to  cut  any  one 
you've  been  introduced  to.  Remove  the 
joint!"  And  the  waiters  carried  it  off,  and 
brought  a  large  plum-pudding  in  its  place. 

"I  won't  be  introduced  to  the  pudding, 
please,"  Alice  said  rather  hastily,  "or  we  shall 
get  no  dinner  at  all.      May  I  give  you   some?" 

But  the  Red  Queen  looked  sulky,  and 
growled  "Pudding — —Alice:  Alice Pudd- 
ing! Remove  the  pudding!"  and  the  waiters 
took  it  away  so  quickly  that  Alice  couldn't 
return  its  bow. 

However,  she  didn't  see  why  the  Red  Queen 
should  be  the  only  one  to  give  orders;  so,  as 
an  experiment,  she  called  out  "Waiter!  Bring 
back  the  pudding!"  and  there  it  was  again 
in  a  moment,  like  a  conjuring-trick.  It  was  so 
large  that  she  couldn't  help  feeling  a  little  shy 
with  it,   as   she  had    been   with    the    mutton: 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         153 

however,  she  conquered  her  shyness  by  a 
great  effort,  and  cut  a  slice  and  handed  it  to 
the  Red  Queen. 

"What  impertinence!"  said  the  Pudding. 
"I  wonder  how  you'd  like  it,  if  I  were  to  cut  a 
slice  out  of  you,  you  creature!" 

It  spoke  in  a  thick,  suety  sort  of  voice,  and 
Alice  hadn't  a  word  to  say  in  reply:  she  could 
only  sit  and  look  at  it  and  gasp. 

"Make  a  remark, "  said  the  Red  Queen:  "it's 
ridiculous  to  leave  all  the  conversation  to  the 
pudding!" 

"Do  you  know,  I've  had  such  a  quantity  of 
poetry  repeated  to  me  to-day,"  Alice  began,  a 
little  frightened  at  finding  that,  the  moment 
she  opened  her  lips,  there  was  dead  silence, 
and  all  eyes  were  fixed  upon  her;  "and  it's  a 
very  curious  thing,  I  think — every  poem  was 
about  fishes  in  some  way.  Do  you  know  why 
they're  so  fond  of  fishes,  all  about  here?" 

She  spoke  to  the  Red  Queen,  whose  answer 
was  a  little  wide  of  the  mark.  "As  to  fishes," 
she  said,  very  slowly  and  solemnly,  putting  her 
mouth  close  to  Alice's  ear,  "her  White  Majesty 
knows  a  lovely  riddle — all  in  poetry — all  about 
fishes.      Shall  she  repeat  it?" 

"Her  Red  Majesty's  very  kind  to  mention 
it,"  the  White  Queen  murmured  into  Alice's 
other  ear,  in  a  voice  like  the  cooing  of  a 
pigeon.      "It  would  be  such  a  treat!     May  I?" 

' '  Please  do, ' '  Alice  said  very  politely. 

The  White  Queen  laughed  with  delight,  and 
stroked  Alice's  cheek.     Then  she  began: 


154         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

"  'First,  the  fish  must  be  caught.' 
That   is   easy:    a    baby,   I    think,   could   have 
caught  it. 
'Next,  the  fish  must  be  bought.' 
That  is  easy:  a  penny,   I   think,   would   have 
bought  it. 

'Now  cook  me  the  fish!' 
That  is  easy,  and  will  not  take  more   than  a 
minute. 

'Let  it  lie  in  a  dish!' 
That  is  easy,  because  it  already  is  in  it. 

'Bring  it  here!  Let  me  sup!' 
It  is  easy  to  set  such  a  dish  on  the  table. 

'Take  the  dish-cover  up!' 
Ah,  that  is  so  hard  that  I  fear  I'm  unable! 

For  it  holds  it  like  glue — 
Holds  the  lid  to  the  dish,  while  it  lies  in  the 
middle: 
Which  is  easiest  to  do, 
Un-dish-cover     the     fish,     or     dishcover    the 
riddle?" 

"Take  a  minute  to  think  about  it,  and  then 
guess,"  said  the  Red  Queen.  "Meanwhile, 
we'll  drink  your  health  —  Queen  Alice's 
health!"  she  screamed  at  the  top  of  her  voice, 
and  all  the  guests  began  drinking  it  directly, 
and  very  queerly  they  managed  it;  some  of 
them  put  their  glasses  upon  their  heads  like 
extinguishers,  and  drank  all  that  trickled 
down  their  faces — others  upset  the  decanters, 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         155 

and  drank  the  wine  as  it  ran  off  the  edges  of 
the  table — and  three  of  them  (who  looked  like 
kangaroos)  scrambled  into  the  dish  of  roast 
mutton,  and  began  eagerly  lapping  up  the 
gravy,  "just  like  pigs  in  a  trough!"  thought 
Alice. 

"You  ought  to  return  thanks  in  a  neat 
speech,"  the  Red  Queen  said,  frowning  at 
Alice  as  she  spoke. 

"We  must  support  you,  you  know,"  the 
White  Queen  whispered,  as  Alice  got  up  to  do 
it,  very  obediently,  but  a  little  frightened. 

"Thank  you  very  much,"  she  whispered  in 
reply,  "but  I  can  do  quite  well  without." 

"That  wouldn't  be  at  all  the  thing,"  the 
Red  Queen  said  very  decidedly ;  so  Alice  tried 
to  submit  to  it  with  a  good  grace. 

("And  they  did  push  so!"  she  said  after- 
wards, when  she  was  telling  her  sister  the  his- 
tory of  the  feast.  "You  would  have  thought 
they  wanted  to  squeeze  me  flat!") 

In  fact,  it  was  rather  difficult  for  her  to  keep 
in  her  place  while  she  made  her  speech :  the 
two  Queens  pushed  her  so,  one  on  each  side, 
that  they  nearly  lifted  her  up  into  the  air.      "I 

rise  to   return  thanks "  Alice  began:  and 

she  really  did  rise  as  she  spoke,  several  inches; 
but  she  got  hold  of  the  edge  of  the  table,  and 
managed  to  pull  herself  down  again. 

' '  Take  care  of  yourself ! ' '  screamed  the  White 
Queen,  seizing  Alice's  hair  with  both  her 
hands.      "Something's  going  to  happen!" 

And  then  (as  Alice  afterwards  described  it) 
all   sorts   of  things  happened   in   a  moment. 


156         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

The  candles  all  grew  up  to  the  ceiling,  looking 
something  like  a  bed  of  rushes  with  fireworks 
at  the  top.  As  to  the  bottles,  they  each  took 
a  pair  of  plates,  which  they  hastily  fitted  on 
as  wings,  and  so,  with  fork  for  legs  went  flut- 
tering about  in  all  directions;  "and  very  like 
birds  they  look,"  Alice  thought  to  herself,  as 
well  as  she  could  in  the  dreadful  confusion 
that  was  beginning. 

At  this  moment  she  heard  a  hoarse  laugh  at 
her  side,  and  turned  to  see  what  was  the  mat- 
ter with  the  White  Queen ;  but,  instead  of  the 
Queen,  there  was  the  leg  of  mutton  sitting  in 
the  chair.  "Here  I  am!"  cried  a  voice  from 
the  soup-tureen,  and  Alice  turned  again,  just 
in  time  to  see  the  Queen's  broad  good-natured 
face  grinning  at  her  for  a  moment  over  the 
edge  of  the  tureen,  before  she  disappeared 
into  the  soup. 

There  was  not  a  moment  to  be  lost.  Already 
several  of  the  quests  were  lying  down  in  the 
dishes,  and  the  soup-ladle  was  walking  up  the 
table  towards  Alice's  chair,  and  beckoning  to 
her  impatiently  to  get  out  of  its  way. 

"I  can't  stand  this  any  longer,"  she  cried, 
as  she  jumped  up  and  seized  the  tablecloth 
with  both  hands;  one  good  pull,  and  plates, 
dishes,  guests,  and  candles  came  crashing  down 
together  in  a  heap  on  the  floor. 

"And  as  for  you,"  she  went  on,  turning 
fiercely  upon  the  Red  Queen,  whom  she  con- 
sidered as  the  cause  of  all  the  mischief — but 
the  Queen  was  no  longer  at  her  side — she  had 
suddenly   dwindled  down  to  the  size  of  a  little 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         157 


doll,  and  was  now  on 
the  table  merrilyrun- 
ning  round  and  round 
after  her  own  shawl, 
which  was  trailing 
behind  her. 

At  any  other  time, 
Alice  would  have 
felt  surprised  at  this, 
but  she  was  far  too 
much  excited  to  be 
surprised  at  anything 
now.  "As  for  you," 
she  repeated,  catch- 


11 


158         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

ing  hold  of  the  little  creature  in  the  very  act 
of  jumping  over  a  bottle  which  had  just 
lighted  upon  the  table,  "I'll  shake  you  into 
a   kitten,  that  I   will!" 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         159 


160         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


CHAPTER  X. 

SHAKING. 

She  took  her  off  the  table  as  she  spoke,  and 
shook  her  backwards  and  forwards  with  all  her 
might. 

The  Red  Queen  made  no  resistance  what- 
ever; only  her  face  grew  very  small,  and  her 
eyes  got  large  and  green ;  and  still,  as  Alice 
went  on  shaking  her,  she  kept  on  growing 
shorter — and  fatter — and  softer — and  rounder 
— and — 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         163 


CHAPTER  XI. 

WAKING. 

-and  it  really  was  a  kitten,  after  all. 


11    Looking  aiasa 


162         THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


ISSIfeif 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.  163 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WHICH    DREAMED    IT? 

"Your  Red  Majesty  shouldn't  purr  so  loud," 
Alice  said,  rubbing  her  eyes,  and  addressing 
the  kitten,  respectfully,  yet  with  some  sever- 
ity. "You  woke  me  out  of  oh!  such  a  nice 
dream!  And  you've  been  along  with  me, 
Kitty — all  through  the  Looking-Glass  world. 
Did  you  know  it,  dear?" 

It  is  a  very  inconvenient  habit  of  kittens 
(Alice  had  once  made  the  remark)  that,  what- 
ever you  say  to  them,  they  always  purr.  "If 
they  would  only  purr  for 'yes, '  and  mew  for 
'no,'  or  any  rule  of  that  sort,"  she  had  said, 
"so  that  one  could  keep  up  a  conversation! 
But  how  can  you  talk  with  a  person  if  they 
always  say  the  same  thing?" 

On  this  occasion  the  kitten  only  purred ;  and 
it  was  impossible  to  guess  whether  it  meant 
"yes"  or  "no. " 

So  Alice  hunted  among  the  chessmen  on  the 
table  till  she  had  found  the  Red  Queen ;  then 
she  went  down  on  her  knees  on  the  hearth- 
rug, and  put  the  kitten  and  the  Queen  to  look 
at  each  other.  "Now,  Kitty!"  she  cried,  clap- 
ping her  hands  triumphantly.  "Confess  that 
was  what  you  turned  into!" 


164 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 


("But  it  wouldn't  look  at  it,"  she  said,  when 
she  was  explaining  the  thing  afterwards  to  her 
sister;  "it  turned  away  its  head,  and  pretended 
not  to  see  it ;  but  it  looked  a  little  ashamed  of 
itself,  so  I  think  it  must  have  been  the  Red 
Queen. ") 


"Sit  up  a  little  more  stiffly,  dear!"  Alice 
cried  with  a  merry  laugh.  "And  curtsey 
while  you're  thinking  what  to — what  to  purr. 
It  saves  time,  remember!"  And  she  caught 
it  up  and  gave  it  one  little  kiss,"  just  in  honor 
of  its  havinsr  been  a  Red  Oueen." 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         165 

"Snowdrop,  my  pet!"  she  went  on,  looking 
over  her  shoulder  at  the  White  Kitten,  which 
was  still  patiently  undergoing  its  toilet,  "when 
will  Dinah  have  finished  with  your  White 
Majesty,  I  wonder?  That  must  be  the  reason 
you  were  so  untidy  in  my  dream — Dinah !  Do 
you  know  that  you're  scrubbing  a  White 
Queen?  Really,  it's  most  disrespectful  of 
you! 

"And  what  did  Dinah  turn  to  I  wonder?" 
she  prattled  on,  as  she  settled  comfortably 
down,  with  one  elbow  on  the  rug,  and  her  chin 
in  her  hand,  to  watch  the  kittens.  "Tell  me, 
Dinah,  did  you  turn  to  Humpty  Dumpty?  I 
think  you  did — however,  you'd  better  not  men- 
tion it  to  your  friends  just  yet,  for  I'm  not 
sure. 

"By  the  way,  Kitty,  if  only  you'd  been 
really  with  me  in  my  dream,  there  was  one 
thing  you  would  have  enjoyed — I  had  such  a 
quantity  of  poetry  said  to  me,  all  about  fishes! 
To-morrow  morning  you  shall  have  a  real  treat. 
All  the  time  you're  eating  your  breakfast,  I'll 
repeat  'The  Walrus  and  the  Carpenter'  to  you; 
and  then  you  can  make  believe  it's  oysters, 
dear! 

"Now,  Kitty,  let's  consider  who  it  was  that 
dreamed  it  all.  This  is  a  serious  question,  my 
dear,  and  you  should  not  go  on  licking  your 
paw  like  that — as  if  Dinah  hadn't  washed  you 
this  morning!  You  see,  Kitty,  it  must  have 
been  either  me  or  the  Red  King.  He  was 
part  of  my  dream,  of  course — but  then  I  was 
part  of  his  dream,  too !  Was  it  the  Red  King, 


166        THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS. 

Kitty?  You  were  his  wife,  my  dear,  so  you 
ought  to  know — Oh,  Kitty,  do  help  to  settle  it! 
I'm  sure  your  paw  can  wait!"  But  the  pro- 
voking kitten  only  began  on  the  other  paw, 
and  pretended  it  hadn't  heard  the  question. 
Which  do  you  think  it  was? 


THROUGH  THE  LOOKING-GLASS.         167 


A  boat,  beneath  a  sunny  sky- 
Lingering  onward  dreamily 
In  an  evening  of  July — 

Children  three  that  nestle  near, 
Eager  eye  and  willing  ear, 
Pleased  a  simple  tale  to  hear — 

Long  has  paled  that  sunny  sky: 
Echoes  fade  and  memories  die: 
Autumn  frosts  have  slain  July. 

Still  she  haunts  me,  phantomwise, 
Alice  moving  under  skies 
Never  seen  by  waking  eyes. 

Children  yet,  the  tale  to  hear, 
Eager  eye  and  willing  ear, 
Lovingly  shall  nestle  near. 

In  a  Wonderland  they  lie, 
Dreaming  as  the  days  go  by, 
Dreaming  as  the  summers  die : 

Ever  drifting  down  the  stream — 
Lingering  in  the  golden  gleam — 
Life,  what  is  it  but  a  dream? 

THE    END. 


Poems  op  Power 

By  ELLA  WHEELER  WILCOX 
Containing  her  latest  gems  of  poetry. 
Handsomely  illustrated.     >->->-..-.- 

12mo,  cloth $1.00 

Presentation  Edition— white  vellum ,  gold  top. 1.60 


Every-Day  Thoughts 

in  Prose  and  Verse 

...   BY  ... 

ELLA  WHEELER  WILCOX 

A  COLLECTION  OF  HEART  TO  HEART  TALKS  ON  TOPICS  OF 
INTEREST  TO 

Husbands  and  Wives  Fathers  and  Mothers 

Lovers  and  Sweethearts  Oid  Maids  and  Bachelors 

Replete  with  interest  and  written  in 
the  author's  most  trenchant  style, 
covering  every  phase  of  social  life. 

Handsomely  printed  from  new  plates  made  from  new  type,  exquisitely 
bound  in  especially  illuminated  cloth  cover,  with  gold  top. 

Retail  Price,  $1.50 


A  NEW  ILLUSTRATED  EDITION  OF 

MAURINE 

BY  ELLA  WHEELER  WILCOX 

Printed  from  new  plates,  superbly  illustrated  with  exquisite 

halftone  engravings,  reproduced  from  photographs  taken 

especially  for  this  work,   and  illustrating  the  most 

dramatic  scenes  in  this  great  poem. 

Bound  in  cloth,  embellished  with  richly  illuminated  design. 

Retail  Price,   $1.50 


FOR  SALE  BY  ALL  BOOKSELLERS 


-:■:■/■■■       ,   .:■ 

•■•;•.  !:■■■■■■. 

111 

i  ■...■■;■-. 


